David Justice is opening up about the downfall of his marriage to Halle Berry.
The former MLB star, 59, appeared on Thursday’s episode of Matt Barnes’ “All the Smoke” podcast and candidly revealed what led to his and Berry’s 1997 divorce.
“Because I was young and I had only, honestly, been in one relationship before her, my knowledge and my understanding, my wisdom around relationships just wasn’t vast,” he explained.
“So, I’m looking at my mom and I’m a Midwest guy,” Justice continued. “So, in my mind, I’m thinking a wife at that time should cook, clean. Then I’m thinking, ‘OK, if we have kids, is this the woman I want to have kids with and build a family with?’”
“At that time, as a young guy, she don’t cook, don’t clean, don’t really seem like motherly, and then we start having issues,” he added of Berry, 58. “I’ll say this, we never had any issues about any women, other men.”
Justice met the “X-Men” actress in May 1992 and they tied the knot in January 1993. After their relationship became constant tabloid fodder, the pair separated in Feb. 1996 and finalized their divorce in June 1997.
On the podcast, Justice explained that his and Berry’s romance didn’t get “a lot of negative attention” from the press “until I decided to leave her in 1996.”
“She asked me to marry her after knowing me for five months,” he shared. “I said OK, because I couldn’t say no. But I don’t know if my heart was really into it, but I didn’t want to make her feel bad and say no, you know. I was just in the moment.”
The baseball legend also said the exes “spent a lot of time apart” when Berry got busier in her career.
“We honestly probably could have made it if I knew about therapy,” Justice admitted. “If we knew about therapy, we probably could have made it.”
Justice recalled that after “the honeymoon stage was over,” he told Berry he was leaving her, much to the Oscar winner’s chagrin.
The retired athlete also alleged that he became the bad guy to the public after their split, especially years later when Berry accused an unnamed ex of abuse and didn’t clarify that it wasn’t Justice.
“She let the world think it. She didn’t come out and say, ‘Nah, it wasn’t David,’” Justice explained. “She let the world think that it was me. That, I never appreciated with her. I thought she was dead wrong for that. I thought she should’ve handled that better.”
Justice added that in hindsight he realized “that girl really did love me. I can see why she was so mad at me.”
The Post has reached out to Berry’s rep for comment.
Four years after his divorce from Berry, Justice married Rebecca Villalobos. They have three children together.
Berry, for her part, went on to be married to singer and actor Eric Benét and French actor Olivier Martinez, with whom she shares son Maceo-Robert, 11.
She also dated model Gabriel Aubry and together they welcomed daughter Nahla Ariela, 17.
The “Catwoman” star has been in a relationship with singer Van Hunt since 2020.
