Former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams is a single woman again. She officially announced on Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, that she is no longer getting married to Pastor Chad Johnson.
The “Chad Loves Michelle” star told her fans directly that she broke things off with Johnson — and on the same day she dropped her new single “Fearless.”
“I still remain fearless,” wrote Michelle on Instagram Story. “I guess I still remain single! Things didn’t work out. The healing that needs to take place is a must. I don’t wanna destroy another relationship. Blessings to him, his family and his ministry. #Fearless.”
Fans were sincerely happy that Williams had found true love and were pulling for the relationship to work out despite the adversities and challenges.
The former couple met at a spiritual retreat in Arizona in 2017. Johnson is a life coach who doubles as a chaplain for pro sports teams such as the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball.
Williams was still in recovery from a traumatic breakup with her ex-boyfriend when she took the trip to Arizona.
“I was in a horrible, dark place,” Williams told People magazine about where she was when she met Johnson. “I just needed to go somewhere where I could get a message of hope and restoration, rejuvenation — get connected to God.”
There was reportedly an instant bond between Johnson and Williams that blossomed in secrecy for the first several months before they took the relationship public. Johnson proposed to Williams one year after they connected at the retreat.
Williams and Johnson took a leap of faith and had their relationship and premarital counseling chronicled on their OWN reality show, “Chad Loves Michelle.” But the engagement had already begun to go south when Williams broke off the engagement twice in the weeks after Johnson proposed. Things got even shakier when, three months later, Williams was hospitalized and then entered a treatment facility for a deep, dark depression. Williams has been battling depression since her Destiny’s Child days 20 years before.
While Williams was in treatment, she even gave Johnson an easy way out if he wanted to take it.
“I said ‘Babe, I will understand if you leave. I can go to bed at night knowing that you left because you were praying for a wife but not a depressed wife.’ But he showed me sickness and in health already before marriage,” Williams said on “Good Morning America.”
Yes, Johnson did stay and tried mightily to tough it out. But now the relationship is sadly over.
