David Justice on Halle Berry rumors: 'Don't ever say that I hit a woman'
David Justice has broken his silence and denied long-standing rumors that he abused his ex-wife, Halle Berry. Pictured: Berry and Justice in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 14, 1993. Credit: AP
Halle Berry's first husband, David Justice, on Monday expanded on last week's tweets denying long-standing rumors that he is the unnamed former boyfriend who had physically abused the actress to the point of partial deafness.
"Over the past 20 years," retired Major League Baseball player Justice told People magazine, "I've heard people saying, 'Isn't that the dude who hit Halle Berry in the head?' " The rumors reached a point, he said, where stadium hecklers would "scream, 'Hey, Justice, hit the ball like you hit Halle!' "
The former Yankees rightfielder, 49, was married to the actress from 1993 until she filed for divorce three years later. He maintained a public silence after Berry revealed in the 1990s that while shooting "The Last Boy Scout" (1991) -- filmed before the two met -- her Hollywood-star boyfriend had beaten her so badly he punctured her left eardrum, causing 80 percent hearing loss in that ear.
"I thought I was taking the high road," Justice says now, "and as a result a lot of stuff was said about me, and because I didn't say anything back, a lot of people thought it must've been true."
He also confessed he feared a backlash from Berry, also 49. "As a baseball player back in those days, there were no publicists; I didn't have a team," Justice said. "Halle had managers, lawyers, publicists, etc. It was Team Halle versus me."
After reading about the Oscar-winning actress' impending divorce from her third husband, actor Olivier Martinez, and seeing references to her having been abused, Justice said he spoke up to shield his children -- David Jr., 15, Dionisio, 13, and Raquel, 11 -- from taunts.
"My kids know what their dad is about, but the one thing that I could not have was my kids' little friends and their parents, or social-media-type people, seeing this particular thing attached to me," he says. "I'm in the community trying to coach, being a mentor. I'm not perfect, but don't ever say that I hit a woman."
Berry's representative did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.
