‘And Now Today at 52 She’s Grieving’: Tracee Ellis Ross’ Confession Regarding Grief About Being Single, Resurfaces Old Clip of Her Claiming She Was ‘Happily Single’
Tracee Ellis Ross is singing a slightly different tune when it comes to romantic relationships.
The 52-year-old who once claimed to be “happily” and “gloriously single” now reveals that she does desire romance. During her guest appearance on Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson’s podcast “IMO,” Ross got candid about how she feels about not having a family.
She said, “I did dream of my wedding growing up, and that’s not to say that I didn’t dream of the bigness of my life. But I could’ve spent a lot more time dreaming of my life. And as much as grief does surface for me around not having children and not having a partner, I still wouldn’t want the wrong partner. I’m not interested in that. You have to make my life better. It can’t just be, you know, I’m in a relationship just to be in a relationship.”
But as she’s done before when opening up about love, Ross chose to focus on the positives.
“So even though the grief does emerge and that comes and I hold that, I think of what I’ve done. And I think of I woke up every morning trying to do my best. I didn’t wake up one morning and be like I’m going to mess this day up. So I must be where I’m supposed to be., and I don’t know sometimes I think of all of things I’ve done. The courage that I had to have and what I’ve had to learn how to navigate as a single person, with no one to hide behind. And it’s built a really beautiful experience around me. And I have incredible friends.”
Five years ago her perspective about being single was somewhat different. Ross, interviewed on Oprah Winfrey’s 2020 Vision Tour Visionaries, talked about being content in her life and choosing to be single.
The “Girlfriends” star said in front of a live audience, “I, like many of us, was taught to grow up dreaming of my wedding, not of my life. And I spent many years dreaming of my wedding and also waiting to be chosen. Well here’s the thing, I’m the chooser. And I can choose to get married if I want to but in the meantime I am choicefully single. Happily, gloriously single.”
“And I do wish there were more examples, and one of the reasons I’m OK talking about it – and by the way My Life Is Mine that speech really was geared towards that. I was like – at the time was 45 years old and single and I had just pushed out my fifth kid on television,” she added, referring to a speech she gave at the 2017 Glamour Women of the Year Summit. Ross was in the middle of her run as TV mom Rainbow Johnson on the ABC sitcom “Black-ish” then.
“And in that context so many people asked the question ‘Have you ever thought about having children? Like, I mean, my child gave my life meaning.’ I’m like, ‘Are you saying my life is not meaningful?’”
In her recent conversation Ross told the brother and sister hosts that she is dating and, in fact, she is dating younger men. When diving into why that is, she said, “But a lot of men my age are steeped in a toxic masculinity and have been raised in a culture where there is a particular way that a relationship looks, and anything that starts to smell of that for me, I did enough of it where I was controlled and felt like I was a possession or whatever those things were, a prize. And I just, I have no interest in it and I will not do it again.”
She later said, “I mean, I haven’t had great luck lately, but I do have to say I’m moving up, on what it is that I’m looking for as a match.”
Fans reacted to Ross’ interview.
One person commented under a TikTok video of her interview with Winfrey after watching her interview with Obama and Robinson.
They said, “And now today at 52 she’s grieving not having children and a partner!”
On X someone else called Ross out.
They wrote, “Tracee Ellis Ross does not speak for all childless women. Some, sh-t, maybe A LOT of women, enjoy the freedom. We are not grieving, lol. Girl, if you don’t go enjoy that beautiful life with that amazing skin and stop letting these folks get into your head.”
But she, of course, had a plethora of fans who were supportive of her statements.
One male commenter on X wrote, “I feel tracee Ellis Ross I’m not having kids and being single .. I rather be dolo than have da wrong person around me throwing me tf off.”
Another fan wrote, “Tracee Ellis Ross made a true statement that was so relatable! Like I’ve been single for years now and I rather be single than be in a relationship and still feel alone. You gotta choose you and do what’s best for you. Being single is okay.”
According to 21Ninety, Ross’ last public boyfriend was Abou “Bu” Thiam, who is not only the executive vice president of Columbia Records but is also singer and producer Akon’s brother. The “Black-ish” actress and Thiam reportedly dated from 2011 to 2013.