We have sad news to report from the world of music today:
Jellybean Johnson, the drummer for the beloved soul and R&B band Morris Day and The Time, has passed away at the age of 69.
News of Johnson’s passing comes courtesy of fellow musician and collaborator Sheila E.
Morris Day, Jellybean Johnson and Jerome Benton of The Original 7 performs during the 2011 Soul Train Awards at The Fox Theatre on November 17, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
Pop icon pays tribute to fellow Prince protege
“With a heavy heart, my dear friend Jellybean passed away a couple of hours ago,” the singer wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
“We are devastated by this news. I’m praying for his family and all the kids. He was a kind human being, extremely talented and funny,” she continued, adding:
“He had a great sense of humor and [was] an awesome guitar player. Yesterday was your birthday, I forgot to call you and I’m so sorry. I love u Bean. Rest in peace and power.”
Jellybean — whose real name was Garry George Johnson — reportedly died unexpectedly. His cause of death is unknown at this time.
An iconic career behind the kit
Born November 19, 1956 in Chicago, Johnson made the acquaintance of Prince early in his career.
In 1981, the music legend recruited Johnson to be part of the funk rock band The Time as part of his deal with Warner Bros. to produce other artists.
In 1985, he and The Time delivered a memorable performance in Prince’s wildly popular film Purple Rain.
In addition to his work with The Time, Johnson played the drums for such major acts as Patti LaBelle, Human League, New Edition, Cherrelle, and Alexander O’Neal.
He also worked as a producer, helping to engineer such hits as Janet Jackson’s 1990 number one single “Black Cat.”
In 2008, Johnson performed with Rihanna at the Grammy Awards.
He dedicated his later years to projects such music-related humanitarian projects as the Minneapolis Sound Museum and the Jellybean Johnson Experience, in which he performed with gifted up-and-comers.
Our thoughts go out to Jellybean Johnson’s loved ones during this difficult time.
Halle Berry has been married and divorced more than once.
And not all of the A-list bombshell’s significant entanglements have involved marriage.
From her most recent relationship to those before she rose to fame, her love life has seen dramatic highs and lows.
Here’s a rundown of her romantic history, heartbreaks, and where things stand today.
Jury Member Halle Berry attends the 2025 Chopard Universe Dinner at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2025. (Photo Credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
Before Halle Berry married (or divorced)
From March 1989 until October 1991, Halle Berry dated John Ronan, a dentist in Chicago.
Though the two neither married nor divorced, this was a significant relationship — in part because of the fallout.
Ronan would later sue Berry for $80,000, alleging that these “unpaid loans” had helped to launch her career. The court didn’t buy that.
In the early ’90s, an unidentified abusive boyfriend inflicted such violence on her that she lost 80% of the hearing in her left ear.
Berry has only acknowledged that the assailant was also famous and in the entertainment industry. Ex-boyfriend Christopher Williams has accused Wesley Snipes of being the culprit.
Atlanta Braves baseball player David Justice reacts to the popularity of his wife, actress Halle Berry, and child actor four-year-old Marc John Jefferies at the premiere of the film “Losing Isaiah” 15 March. (Photo Credit: JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images)
David Justice (1993 – 1997)
In February 1992, Berry saw David Justice — a baseball player — engaging in a sports game on MTV.
When she learned that he, too, was a fan, Berry gave her phone number to a reporter to pass on to Justice.
Just after midnight on January 1, 1993, Berry and Justice married.
Unfortunately, the marriage did not last. The two separated in February 1996, and divorced on June 20, 1997.
Berry stated publicly that she felt deeply depressed. Justice would later claimed that Berry lacked “mothering” energy. This was her first divorce — but not her last.
Actress Halle Berry, wearing Harry Winston jewelry, and husband Eric Benet attends the 75th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater on March 23, 2003. (Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Halle Berry and Eric Benét (2001 – 2005)
Eric Benét is a singer-songwriter. He and Halle Berry began dating in the late ’90s.
After two years together, they married on January 24, 2001.
Unfortunately, in 2002, Benét began going to counseling for “sex addiction.” Though the condition does not exist, this phony diagnosis is sometimes applied when someone cheats but then claims to not be responsible.
Whatever this alleged “treatment” involved, it either didn’t work or came too late.
By October 2003, Berry and Benét had separated. On January 3, 2005, they finalized their divorce.
Actress Halle Berry (R) and model Gabriel Aubry pose at the afterparty for the premiere of DreamWorks’ “Things We Lost in the Fire” at the Egyptian Theater on October 15, 2007. (Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
She did not marry Gabriel Aubry
Though Berry and French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry never married, their relationship remains a fixture in many people’s minds.
They began dating in November 2005. In March of 2008, Berry gave birth to their daughter, Nahla Ariela Aubry.
In April of 2010, Berry and Aubry revealed that they had broken up months earlier. That was not the end of it, however.
In early 2011, the two locked horns in a bitter and highly publicized custody battle — not necessarily over fitness as parents, but over where they wanted to live and co-parent their daughter.
By late 2012, they had reached an amicable custody agreement. Berry had to pay $16,000 per month in child support to Aubry. All of this came after a physical fight between Aubry and Berry’s new man.
Actors Olivier Martinez and Halle Berry attend the 2011 Jenesse Silver Rose Auction and Gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel on April 17, 2011. (Photo Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images)
Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez (2013 – 2015)
In March of 2012, Halle Berry confirmed her engagement to French actor Olivier Martinez.
Over a year later, they married in France in July 2013. Three months later, in October, Berry gave birth to their son, Maceo-Robert Martinez.
(It was during their engagement that Martinez and Aubry got into a physical altercation that led to mutual restraining orders and also landed both men in the hospital)
In 2015, after two years of marriage, Berry and Martinez revealed that they were getting divorced.
In December 2016, they finalized their split. It was only in August of 2023, however, that they settled issues regarding child support and custody of their son.
Singer-songwriter Van Hunt walks out onto the ‘Today’ stage in June 2025. (Image Credit: NBC)
As for where things stand today …
Though Halle Berry has been married and divorced more than once, the relationship in most people’s minds involves neither — thus far.
In 2020, she began dating Van Hunt, an American musician.
This romance has played out largely on social media, with memorable (and steamy) Instagram posts.
Though Hunt has proposed, Berry explained that they’re not quite at the right place for an engagement just yet.
She’s not looking to be married or divorced again too hastily. For now, it looks like they’re enjoying life — and each other.
Tatiana Schlossberg has penned a deeply personal and incredibly painful essay.
The 35-year-old daughter of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg — and the cousin of Robert K. Kennedy — shared on Saturday that she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a rare blood cancer — with doctors giving her a terminal prognosis.
Tatiana Schlossberg attends her book signing at the In goop Health Summit San Francisco 2019 at Craneway Pavilion on November 16, 2019 in Richmond, California. (Photo by Amber De Vos/Getty Images for goop)
Writing for The New Yorker on November 22, Schlossberg explained that she learned of her disease hours after giving birth to her second baby with husband George Moran in May 2024, when her physician discovered that her white blood cell count was unusually high.
After being told of her diagnosis, the environmental journalist — who also shares 3-year-old Edwin Jr. with Moran — was told she would need months of chemotherapy as well as a bone-marrow transplant, confessing in her essay she had trouble processing the news.
“I did not—could not—believe that they were talking about me,” she wrote, adding:]“I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew.”
She continued:
“I had a son whom I loved more than anything and a newborn I needed to take care of. This could not possibly be my life.”
Tatiana Schlossberg attends Intelligencer Live: Our Warmer Future presented by New York Magazine and Brookfield Place on September 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for New York Magazine)
Elsewhere in this piece, Schlossberg says her cousin of a health secretary has become an “embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family,” largely due to his dangerous opinion on vaccines.
In January, Schlossberg embarked on a clinical trial of CAR-T-cell therapy, an immunotherapy meant to fight certain blood cancers. After numerous rounds of the trial, her doctor informed her that she likely has one year to live.
She said her husband has done everything anyone could possibly ask, going on about her loved ones and her situation:
“My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half.
“They have held my hand unflinchingly while I have suffered, trying not to show their pain and sadness in order to protect me from it. This has been a great gift, even though I feel their pain every day.”
Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of former US President John F Kennedy speaks during a memorial service in Runnymede, Surrey on November 22, 2013, to mark the 50th anniversary of his assassination. (AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL)
At another point, Schlossberg detailed her own feelings about her prognosis.
“For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,” she said.
“Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
Trump’s lawyer Lindsey Halligan was another controversial pick for the president, not least following a rather dodgy exchange with a journalist that went viral.
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