Taraji P. Henson wouldn’t mind having an off-screen co-star in her life.
The award-winning actress, 47, says she’s interested in having a boyfriend, but only if he’s ready for her fast-moving lifestyle.
“I would love to (be in a relationship), but he has to see how I move and deal with it, because I don’t have time to explain,” Henson told Marie Claire in a new cover story. “I’ve got work to do.”
The “Empire” actress has never been married, but has a 23-year-old son named Marcell. The young man’s father, William Mark Johnson — who was Henson’s high school sweetheart — was murdered in 2003.
Henson wrote in her 2016 memoir “Around the Way Girl” that Johnson was abusive toward her, sharing in excruciating detail that he punched her in the face one night during a fight.
She ended the relationship from there.
“With that separation, my forever man, my first love, was no more,” Henson wrote in the book.
Henson is notoriously quiet about her personal and dating life, though she was romantically linked to NFL cornerback Kelvin Hayden last year.
The actress, who has received a Golden Globe award and a pair of Emmy nominations for her portrayal of the no-nonsense Cookie Lyon in “Empire,” also said in her wide-ranging interview with Marie Claire that she wants her work to be admired one day like some of Hollywood’s very best.
“I want these little girls to study me like I studied Meryl and Bette Davis and Carol Burnett,” she said. “I want them to study my work, because I put a lot of work in, a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”
Henson also garnered considerable applause for her performance in the NASA drama “Hidden Figures.”
The October issue of Marie Claire with Henson on the cover comes out on Sept. 19.
