Henson’s son Marcell was just 9 when his father was stabbed to death
Hollywood star Taraji P. Henson recently spoke about the difficulty she faced in telling her son that his father had been murdered.
In the preview for Wednesday’s episode of Facebook Watch’s Peace of Mind with Taraji, we see the actor recalling about telling her son Marcell Johnson that his father, William LaMarr “Mark” Johnson, had been killed.
Marcell, who is 26 now, was only 9 at that time and Henson said that she couldn’t tell him that he had been murdered at that time, so she said he died in an accident. Henson was speaking about this with her co-host Tracie Jade Jenkins and their guest, mental health counselor Sierra Hillsman.
Telling him later
Marcell only got to know the truth about his father’s death at a later time. Henson said that he came back to her one day and asked why his daddy got murdered, and later they had to get therapy. Henson spoke amidst tears on how she saw her ex’s murder being reported in a newspaper. Seeing that he was stabbed to death, she felt that she couldn’t say that to a 9-year-old.
Henson has been a longtime advocate for mental health and last month, she told Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist that the reason for launching her Facebook show was to spread mental health awareness in the Black community. She said that it the mental health crisis in the Black community felt like it needed some urgency, and this was what she decided to reach out to more people.
She also shared about her own fight with depression in 2020 which got so bad that she just wanted to “end it all.”
(Cover: Getty)