Robin Givens is reclaiming her truth. The Ambitions actress recently spoke about how she was treated in the public eye after divorcing Mike Tyson back in 1989 after eight months of marriage. And with the former heavy-weight champ’s biopic approaching, starring Jamie Foxx, the actress hopes her portrayal will be kinder.
“I think we live in a world right now, If you tell lies loud enough and often enough, they can stick,” she said on Bevy Smith’s radio show Bevalations. “What happened to me gave me a voice, but not only for myself but for other women that were in my position. I really ask people to really think on their own.”
During the conversation Givens and Smith noted that the actress was heavily criticized following her divorce, with many labeling her a gold digger. Givens also said that much of the criticism she received after her divorce diminished her personal accomplishments.
“First of all, I was a young woman at the time. I was 22 years old. By the time I met my ex-husband and not to go through my things on paper, but I had graduated from high school at 15. I went to college at 19. I was a Harvard grad. I had my own TV show. I had my own home by the time I met [him],” Givens boasted. “I don’t think a lot of 22 year olds can say that.”
“I only say that, not to applaud myself, but it’s amazing that when people do tell lies, it kinds of takes away your truth. And I think it’s very important not to let somebody do that, not to let somebody rewrite history because you have a louder voice,” she added.
During their very public and bitter breakdown, Givens revealed to Barbara Walters that she had been physically abused by Tyson. It didn’t stop Tyson from claiming in a New York Post article that Givens and her mother stole from him and were “the slime of the slime” and that the two were “mean and vindictive.”
Givens said thankfully now the public is a lot kinder to women—at times.
“This is a different climate for women,” she said. “And I think the #MeToo movement—this is a different climate. Men can’t brag about hitting women any longer and call them names or where the victimizer becomes the victim. And I hope the movie reflects that. We don’t let the victimizer get away with now being the victim.”
If she had it her way, however, Givens said she would rather be left out of the film altogether.
“That was not a fun ex for me,” she told Andy Cohen on his Sirius XM show, Always Unpredictable. “I had a good friend of mine [who] went and got the book that he wrote. I was reading it and there were so many things that are so not true that it’s hard not to feel deeply disturbed by it. So, in a way I hope I’m stronger because of this but it’s a little upsetting.”
“That’s going to be a tough one for me…to hear someone say, ‘The best punch I ever threw was against Robin and she bounced from one wall to the next and was out.’ I’m literally praying that we’re in a climate where that’s not acceptable,” Givens added.
There’s no date on when the film is slated to be released, but Foxx revealed last month that he’s bulking up to play the heavyweight, whom he first met while doing stand-up comedy at the age of 22.