Halle Berry

For Halle Bailey, starring as Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" isn't just another box to tick off on her list of accomplishments — it's much bigger than that. The 22-year-old is making history as the first Black actor to play Ariel and the second to be crowned a Disney princess (Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in 2009's "The Princess and the Frog," was the first) with her role in the forthcoming live-action film. She's well aware of the responsibility that comes with that.

"It's about time that a role like this is played by a Black woman, by somebody who is just a part of this beautiful community. We deserve to have images that look like us and to see ourselves in the media on big screens and everything," Bailey tells POPSUGAR. "So I'm just grateful that we're getting to see ourselves finally on such big projects."

UPDATE 3:12 P.M. PST: Halle Berry later returned to Instagram to confirm that she and Van Hunt are, in fact, not married! She wrote on Sunday:

“We were just having some New Year’s Day fun! People clearly don’t swipe as much as we thought they did. thank you for the well wishes, tho’, it really touched our hearts! Now it’s OFFICIAL, the internet is no longer undefeated.”

Halle Berry just completely shaded her exes while opening up about how her relationship with boyfriend Van Hunt has helped her be a better momma.

The 55-year-old actress, who confirmed she was dating the singer in September 2020, chatted about their relationship in a cover story for the December issue of Women’s Health. In the interview, she expressed that Hunt has made her a “much better mother” to her children, Maceo and Nahla, than their respective fathers Olivier Martinez and Gabriel Aubry ever did. Berry explained:

Van Hunt went above and beyond for Halle Berry’s 55th birthday!

The actress celebrated the milestone on Saturday, revealing on Instagram that her musician beau crooned out the song Smoke Gets In Your Eyes for her b-day present. Berry posted a video of herself in the passenger seat of a car, windows rolled down, and her hair blowing in the wind while listening to Hunt serenade her in the background. Swoon!