Life & Love on My Terms

THE ACTRESS OPENS UP ABOUT HER BOLD NEW ROLE AND FACING CRITICISM OVER HER ROMANCE WITH JONATHAN MAJORS

- JANINE RUBENSTEIN

After more than 30 years of navigating Hollywood and life in the spotlight, Meagan Good has made a promise to herself. “I’m going to take this part of my life, and I’m going to make it wonderful,” says the actress, minutes after dancing around in the Los Angeles sunshine, bare feet in the grass, during her People photo shoot. “Every single part of my life is going to matter, and I’m not going to regret things. However old I make it to, I want to look back and be like, ‘Yeah, I did that.’”

It’s a mindset the 42-yearold star says that she and her latest character—Ava, a battered wife turned empowered divorcée in her new film Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black—have in common. “I felt in some ways it would be therapeutic,” she says of signing on for the role amid her own divorce from producer DeVon Franklin in 2021.

Unlike her onscreen husband, chillingly played by Cory Hardrict, “my ex-husband is a wonderful, beautiful human being,” she says of Franklin, noting that abuse was never a factor in their marriage or split. “But I do understand the devastation of divorce. There’s this complete grief, then denial, then eventual acceptance.”