Getty Robin Givens attends Discovery Inc. 2019 NYC Upfront at Alice Tully Hall on April 10, 2019 in New York City.
Robin Givens was just 23-years old when she had a short-lived marriage to former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. During the brief marriage, the “Head of the Class” star was labeled a golddigger, and there were also rumors that Tyson was abusive to his wife.
The couple sat down for a famous interview with Barbara Walters in 1988 to address rumors that their marriage was in trouble, and Givens did not directly answer Walters’ question if Tyson had ever hit her. Still, no one was surprised when Givens filed for divorce from the fighter less than a year after their 1988 wedding, on Valentine’s Day 1989, and alleged that he physically abused her, per People.
Details of the celebrity couple’s split were splashed across tabloids at the time, and Tyson continued to bash his ex in the media for years following their contentious divorce. Givens recently sent a cease-and-desist to producers of an upcoming film about Tyson’s life, per Page Six. Producers were warned to “refrain from portraying Ms. Givens in a false, negative and defamatory light.”
More than 30 years after her divorce, Givens’ life has changed drastically.
Robin Givens Is Now a Mom of 2
Givens is now 55-years-old and a mother of two sons. She adopted her first son, Michael “Buddy” Givens, in 1993 as a single mom. In 1999, she gave birth to a second son, William “Billy” Jensen, while in a long-term relationship with tennis player Murphy Jensen, according to People. The couple split in 2002.
Of her sons, Givens told Oprah Winfrey in 2004: “I’m in love with those two boys. And life is so good. And I’m here to say also that I’m sure there are people who have felt like I felt. Like maybe they couldn’t go on. And you can turn a corner. You can be happy again. You can live.”
More recently, during a 2019 appearance on the daytime talk show “The Real” she said, “Nothing in the world has made me happier than being a mom. It’s just been healing, you see the world all over again.”
Robin Givens Still Works in the Entertainment Business As an Actor & Director & Also Devotes Time to a Domestic Violence Organization
Despite her personal drama and transition into motherhood, Givens never left her career in show business. Her IMDB page lists a steady stream of acting credits from the 1980s to the present, including a role on the popular CW drama series “Riverdale.” She told People that she also recently directed her first film.
“I’ve loved being Josie McCoy’s mom on Riverdale, which has just been wonderful. I’ve gotten to do the spinoff, Katy Keene and I got to direct my first Lifetime movie, ‘A Murder to Remember,’” she told the outlet, adding that she has more film directing in the works.
“I have a really, really nice life now,” Givens said decades after her divorce from Tyson.
Givens also gives time to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, where she speaks to victims of domestic abuse.
“My story was very public, but when I speak to women and I sit in shelters and I hold children, I realize that the details of our stories are the same,” she told People.
READ NEXT: Mike Tyson’s Sister Denise’s Cause of Death