Tyler Perry is no stranger to the movie screen or the Hollywood scene. Best known for his role as the hilarious and outrageous elderly grandmother Madea, the character quickly made “her” way into fans’ hearts and onto their TV screens. In everything from stage plays and films, Madea has found a place, rocketing Perry into the role of entertainment icon. The 52-year-old is currently worth $660 million with cameos on stages all across the world and TV shows across all the streaming networks. With his current trajectory he could easily become a billionaire within a few short years, but with all this fame and fortune, does he have anyone to share it with? Here’s what we discovered.
From 2009 to 2020 Perry was involved with Ethiopian model and producer Gelila Bekele. The pair met at a Prince concert back in 2007, apparently, they are both big fans. The couple eventually went public but still kept a lot of aspects of their relationship private, including details about their son, Aman, whom they had after five years together. The pair remained together for another six years after his birth, but still never tied the knot. Although they were together for an entire decade, the former couple never made it official. That said, we do know a bit about Aman’s mother and the woman who so far has taken the most of Perry’s time and affection.
Who is Gelila Bekele?
Born in Ethiopia, Gelila Bekele is a model and filmmaker. Although her modeling resume is quite impressive and extensive and includes such big names as Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Pantene, and L’Oreal, these days she focuses more on her other pursuits.
Bekele is also a humanitarian and activist, and she devotes much of her time advocating for young women’s rights in her home country of Ethiopia. She is also an active supporter of the non-profit Charity Water, a group that strives to ensure clean water sources in developing countries. Her passion for these projects soon blossomed into an entirely new career for her as a producer and documentary filmmaker.
Many of her projects focus on storytelling and bringing awareness to important global issues. Some of her films premiered at the 2019 and 2017 Cannes Film Festival and Berlinale: Mai: Life is not Honey and Anbessa The Model Activists. She is also the author of the book Guzo! published in 2018, which documents the daily lives of Ethiopians. She continues to actively advocate for the rights of women and girls, and for clean water, education, and equality — globally, but especially in Ethiopia.
What happened between Tyler Perry and Gelila Bekele?
A decade is a long time to be an unmarried couple, especially in the world of celebrity-dom where weddings are just as much as a fashion statement as the rings that usually accompany them. Yet it just wasn’t in the cards for Perry and Bekele. It may seem an odd choice, but apparently, Perry had his reasons.
Perry revealed that his dedication to his career, at least at that time, seemed to come before his dedication to marriage. His career came first, it was as simple as that. Perry expounded on this reasoning during an especially honest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: “I’m not so sure, with this kind of work ethic, what kind of husband I will be. I don’t know about marriage as much as I do know that I would be a great father.”
Despite never making things official, it didn’t seem to diminish the love the pair had for each other. In an adorable 2017 interview with People, Perry expressed his true feelings for Bekele: “There’s no other person on this planet that I would want to be involved with or have a child with because she’s amazing.”
Although only three short years later, the pair would call it quits for good. Perry revealed their breakup in an emotional tweet to his Twitter(now X)account.
Perry and Bekele call it quits
In 2020, Perry shocked fans with the surprise announcement on Twitter. The photo was him post-workout with the caption reading “This is what a midlife crisis looks like. I’m 51, single, and wondering what the next chapter in my life will look like. Whatever it looks like, I’m going to walk with God, be the best father and man I can be, hold my head up high, and try to look my best doing it.”
As the two tended to keep their private lives exactly that — private; there was little information provided on what caused the split, although the pair seemed to wish each other well. Perhaps their blossoming careers began to take them in different directions, as just prior to the split, Bekele’s book and several of her films debuted.
Perry too had a lot going on at that time and since, for that matter. He has mainly focused his attention on the continued development of multiple projects and the Madea brand, expanding into streaming platforms like BET Plus, Disney Plus, and Netflix.
He’s also a very successful producer with his own production company, Tyler Perry Studios, which he focused on expanding post-breakup. It went on to include productions like Bad Boys 3 and Coming 2 America. In addition, Perry is also focusing on giving back. Notorious for having no writer’s rooms and writing all his own material, he finally made space for young creators to be given a chance to learn, experience, and to add to his enterprise.
In fact, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Perry revealed that he plans to take on more of a managing role.
“My plan is to relinquish to a lot more directors and writers to take over a lot of these shows that I’ve started. It’s going to be more of me overseeing, rather than doing the hands-on work. For the past six weeks, I was in the mountains. I wrote 72 episodes of television…I start writing at 7 and don’t finish until 7 in the evening. I do that every day until it’s done. I love it. And I love directing for 12- or 15-hour days. But I realize there’s so much more that I could be doing if I were to hand some of the other stuff off — rather than doing it all myself.”
72 episodes? 12-15 hour days? No wonder this guy didn’t have time for marriage. Perry seems to have no end to ideas and creative content. Yet with him giving up more of his work time in pursuit of more free time, will this equal time for a new relationship?
Who is Tyler Perry dating now?
Not so far. Although there were rumors flying that Perry was dating Sistas star Crystal Hayslett, they have since been denied and debunked. Although in Hollywood where there’s dating rumor smoke, there’s usually at least a small fire, but no confirmation of that has yet been reached. As far as we can tell Perry is single and ready to mingle, although his workdays don’t seem to allow for much mingling, except with costars and fellow writers perhaps.
Social media is no help either as Perry’s Instagram is filled with posts of work, work, and more work. Meeting Obama, going on tour, speaking at conferences, producing more things. Sheesh. He is certainly one busy guy. There is however one recent mysterious and obscure post about forgiveness. Could it be directed at his ex?
If he still has some hard feelings toward Bekele, it could certainly explain why he hasn’t been back on the market, as far as we can tell. Yet his caption gives away no clue and there has been nothing in the media about any ad blood between the two. We suppose Perry is just going to try to keep us guessing.
Perry is now 53 and has never looked better. Back in 2012 he became inspired to lose weight for an upcoming role, attempting to play the slim, fit homicide detective in James Patterson’s novel turned movie, Alex Cross. Yet it turned out the healthy lifestyle suited him! He lost 30 pounds and has kept it off ever since. With regular workouts and a healthy diet, he frankly looks better than ever. So to sum it up, he is single, never married, works out, looks great, and is a hilarious millionaire creative idea machine. Form an orderly line ladies!
So we suppose the question “Who is Tyler Perry married to” is kind of a trick one because the answer is–to no one! Yet. Who knows perhaps the next lucky lady could be you! We don’t know exactly what Perry’s type is but Bekele-esque is probably as good a guess as any. We also happen to know where to find him, solo in his writer’s room for approximately 12-15 hours per day, and probably his local gym for at least an additional two. Come on ladies, this is like shooting fish in a barrel! Just remember us in your Emmy acceptance speech after you two fall madly in love and he casts you as the lead in his next movie.
Yet aside from that very likely scenario, as far as anyone knows Tyler Perry is not married, and has no potential prospects in sight.
