Academy award-winning actress Viola Davis and her husband, actor and producer Julius Tennon celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary on June 23. She gushed about him in a touching celebratory Instagram post.
Accompanied by photos from their wedding and vow renewal ceremonies, Davis wrote a touching tribute to her husband.
“17 years of marriage to the most beautiful man in the WORLD!!!! You have made my life sweeter and my heart bigger. I prayed for you and God said,”Yes! I have just the right person for you!!!!” Happy Anniversary my love… The best is yet to be❤❤❤,” she said.
As is to be expected, congratulations poured in from a multitude of fellow celebrities, including How To Get Away With Murder co-star Matt McGorry, Gabrielle Union, Octavia Spencer, Kerry Washington, Halle Berry, and more.
According to Essence, Davis said that she met her husband just three weeks after making a special prayer. She said that at the time, she was “the loneliest woman in the world” and was told that she needed to “pray for a husband”.
Speaking to Page Six, she said “I said I wanted a big black man from the South who looked like a football player, who already had children, who maybe had been married before . . . 3 1/2 weeks later I met my husband.”
Tennon said on an episode of OWN’s Black Love that they had met when he overheard Davis talking to a friend about how she didn’t like living in Los Angeles. They ended up chatting and he gave her his card. Davis then took several weeks to call him up, since she felt she wasn’t ready. “I didn’t call [him] because I had bad credit; I was struggling with driving in LA,” she said.
A month after they met, they finally went on their first date. Only 20 minutes after their first date he called her to tell her what a great time he had, and another 20 minutes later he called again to say, “I just want to tell you I got home, and you are a beautiful woman. I’m about to go to sleep, and I just wanted to tell you to have a good night.”
Thereafter, the pair fell in love and tied the knot in 2003. In 2011, they adopted their daughter, Genesis.
Image: Instagram / Viola Davis
