Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance have long been one of Black culture’s favorite couples, but Bassett recently revealed that their blessed bond wasn’t so instantaneous.
While on “Live with Kelly and Mark” to promote the new season of her hit drama “9-1-1,” host Kelly Ripa beamed that she experienced love at first sight with husband and co-host Mark Consuelos. She then asked Bassett if she experienced the same with Vance.
“No,” Bassett said matter of factly before explaining, “We met at drama school, and he came with and left with a girlfriend. So I was like, ‘Wow, the commitment of that guy. Oh, amazing!'”
When Ripa asked how the pair found their way to romance, Bassett divulged, “It was years later, [we] ran into each other in L.A. It was like, ‘Oh, a familiar face!’”
“The girlfriend’s gone!” Consuelos chimed in before Bassett affirmed “Yeah, gone … I had a party I was like, ‘Oh, invite the girlfriend!’ He’s said, ‘She’s gone!’”
Bassett and Vance dated for a few years before marrying in 1997. In 2006, the couple welcomed fraternal twins, daughter Bronwyn and son Slater, into the world.
First meeting at Yale School of Drama in the 1980s, the pair didn’t reconnect until the mid-1990s after Bassett earned an Oscar nod for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It? and starring alongside Whitney Houston in Waiting to Exhale.
“When I met Courtney, I had known him in drama school, was very enamored of his talents, his gift on stage, and just him as a person — just a real sweetheart, found him to be supportive,” Bassett recently told People.
“What I really loved so much about him was how supportive and engaging he is of everyone,” she continued. “That’s something that really sort of opened my eyes, and I went from friend to being enamored with him in a different kind of way.”
“From the beginning, he was always just a very supportive partner, and he continues to be to this day. And our communication continues to be strong, But it always comes back to, he’s always been thoughtful about me. His core burns pure,” she added delightfully.
Season 7 of “9-1-1” begins March 14 on ABC.
