Actress and life coach AJ Johnson is known for her quick wit and honesty. She has been making the rounds in recent months, opening up about her career and the inside story of her various relationships. During a recent chat with Vlad TV, she discussed her love affair with Evander Holyfield and why the two of them split despite being so compatible.
For many people, AJ Johnson and Evander Holyfield’s union is news. They were not a very public couple, and a quick google search turns up no images of them together. Johnson actually laughed when Vlad asked about them, noting that the hip-hop journalist has done his research. “Why did you and Holyfield break up?” he asked, pointing out that Johnson and Holyfield were “birds of a feather.” Johnson agreed, saying that while they felt like a match made in heaven, it is very complicated to manage a relationship between two public figures.
Johnson pointed out that their union coincided with both of their stars taking off. She also notes that they were very young and not equipped with the tools to manage that type of delicate balance. In addition to this, Johnson said Holyfield fathered a child with another woman during their relationship. She says she has a very monogamous spirit and could tell that Holyfield was not ready for one woman, especially one with her own career.
Johnson admits she did not know how to navigate “a man that was having babies with 5 or 6 [different] women.”
The life coach also reflected on how hard it was for Holyfield to see her becoming successful. She believes that what he actually needed was a woman that could stay home and support him. Johnson feels “a lot of successful men” would prefer a woman that is home and able to keep them grounded while they go off and make the power moves. For her, that was not the place that she wanted to be. AJ began to notice them competing for time and energy and not being mature enough to sort it out.
While Holyfield and Johnson were not public, she was present for one of the defining moments of his career. Johnson was sitting ringside during the infamous Holyfield vs. Tyson fight that resulted in Mike Tyson biting off a piece of Holyfield’s ear. “Being in the arena and being so close to the ring, you saw Holyfield’s response and his reaction to it. You saw blood. But you still don’t know what’s going on.” She said it was complete chaos, and Holyfield was in shock. AJ remembers that her then-boyfriend asked her to join him in prayer to help him sort through what had just happened. She said they had a deep spiritual connection, but that still was not enough to keep them together. “Our spirit connection is stronger than our worldly connection.” AJ Johnson says to this day they still talk and connect when they can. “That kind of connection doesn’t go anywhere years later.”
The actress has never spoken publicly about Holyfield, but she has expressed her feelings towards dating in the past. During an interview with FOX Soul in 2019, she told host Claudia Jordan that she had lost interest in American men and had shifted her dating radar to Africa. According to Johnson, African men prefer to court their women, while American men just like to date around. “This is what I’ll say. I’ve learned that American men’ kick it.’ African men court. African men commit. That difference alone for me took me from ‘kicking it’ with somebody to feeling chosen.”
At the time, she had also mentioned that she’d met someone in Ghana and was very interested in him but never went public with pictures or details about him. Amongst her other famous unions, Johnson briefly dated Michael Jai White in 2004. It was one of her few public relationships with somewhat of a paper trail online. You can see pictures of them hugging at an ASCAP event in matching white outfits. Little info is known about their relationship. The actress is also rumored to have been dating football star Chad Ochocinco Johnson. A picture of them dining together on October 2, 2016, hit the net. The two were at West Hollywood’s Sunset Plaza. While this was not confirmed, the two did eat side by side and had some apparent chemistry.
