Halle Berry marked her 59th birthday on Thursday with a tropical getaway alongside her partner Van Hunt, and a caption that many fans saw as a subtle response to recent remarks from her ex-husband, David Justice.
Sharing a series of candid vacation snapshots, Berry wrote, “Phew…! cooking, cleaning and mothering,” a line that appeared to play off Justice’s recent claims about their marriage in the ’90s.
The post featured Berry enjoying red wine while lounging barefoot, playful moments in bed with Hunt and a plate of chips, bikini shots, a chocolate birthday cake, and an envelope addressed to “mom,” seemingly a card from her children.
The lighthearted tone came just days after Justice spoke about their past on Matt Barnes’ All the Smoke podcast, where he said he decided to leave Berry in 1996 after three years of marriage because he “couldn’t see her being the mother” of his children.
Justice told Barnes he had been largely free from negative public attention until his relationship with Berry, recalling that their pairing drew intense media focus.
He claimed Berry proposed five months into dating, saying he agreed despite not being sure his heart was fully in it.
Looking back, he said, “I was young… in my mind, I’m thinking, a wife, at that time, should cook, clean, and, so, I’m thinking, ‘OK, if we have kids, is this the woman I want to have kids with and build up a family with?’ And, at that time… she don’t cook, don’t clean, and don’t really seem like motherly.”
He also addressed longstanding rumours linking him to an incident in which Berry lost some hearing, saying she had been harmed by another man but never clarified it publicly.
“That girl ain’t never said l hit her in the head, but… she let the world think it was me, and that I never appreciated with her. I thought she was dead wrong for that,” he said.
Berry and Justice’s split in 1996 included a reported request for a temporary restraining order from Berry, citing concerns for her safety. Justice responded at the time that he posed no threat.
Since then, Berry has married and divorced singer Eric Benet and actor Olivier Martinez, and she has been in a relationship with Hunt since 2020.
While she hasn’t directly addressed Justice’s comments, her birthday post seems to have said plenty without a single pointed word.
