Halle Berry Calls Van Hunt Romance 'First Time' She's Been 'Madly in Love' Before Sex

Halle Berry is opening up about her special connection with her boyfriend Van Hunt. In a interview with Marie Claire for its latest cover story, the actress reflected on the "life-changing" experience of getting into a relationship with Hunt, revealing that it was the "first time" she was "madly in love" with a partner before she was intimate with them. "I created my career. I was intentional about that. I knew what I was going to do, and I did it...But I had never been that intentional with my relationships," recalled Berry, 58. "I was loosey goosey with that. You have to be clear with the universe [or] any old thing will find you." "The minute I started to feel like I understood myself and what I had been doing wrong, Van's brother, who I had known for many years, came to me and said, 'you should meet my brother,'" she continued. Berry and Hunt's relationship began during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and the two didn't meet in person for over six months, with Berry and Hunt getting to know each other through phone calls and text messages. "It was the first time I was madly in love before I had sex," Berry told Marie Claire. "That has never happened to me, ever...Talk about one of those life-changing, beautiful experiences. It was magical, just magical." The Oscar winner said marriage isn't off the table, but she's in no hurry to walk down the aisle again. "It took me a minute to get it right...But the nature of the way this happened, I have a real belief that this is it," Berry said. "This is my person." As for Berry's past relationships, she's previously been married three times. Her first marriage was to baseball player David Justice from 1993 to 1997. Berry tied the knot with singer Eric Benet in 2001, before they separated in 2003. Their divorce was finalized in 2005. After a relationship with model Gabriel Aubry, and a subsequent nasty custody battle with their daughter, Nahla, Berry moved on with French actor Oliver Martinez, whom she married in 2013. The former couple welcomed a son, Maceo, and announced their separation in 2015. Their divorce was finalized in 2016. In a court filing obtained by TMZ last month, Berry expressed her concerns regarding her co-parenting relationship with Martinez, claiming her ex wasn't meeting the terms of their agreement. She also accused her ex of refusing to "accept" her relationship with Hunt, "who plays an important role in Maceo's life." (To learn more about the court filing, click here.) Meanwhile, elsewhere in her interview with Marie Claire, Berry opened up about speaking out about menopause care and women's health. The Catwoman actress has continued to share her experience with menopause and permimenopause, and advocate for legislation, including the Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women's Health Act. "We've been expected to get these babies out and then who cares what happens to us," Berry said. "Y'all just get through it the best way you can...The fighter in me said, hell no, we deserve better! We are half this population. Those kids are here because we bring them here. You don’t get to forget us now for the second half of our journey. We were valuable then and we’re valuable now."