DeVon Franklin and Meagan Good’s start of their relationship was interesting to say the least, and a story that they have told many times over. It was pretty standard for both of them: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy thinks girl is out of his league.
Girl meets boy, girls like boy, girl starts telling everyone that he was her husband. But there was one factor to their relationship that wasn’t as ordinary: celibacy. More specifically, his celibacy, set to the tune of ten entire years. Ten. Decade. Diaz. Dix.
Fortunat-ely for the happy couple, the stars aligned at the right time, and the two have sto-od by each other’s side ever since.
In 2011, the two began dating after getting to know each other on the set of the film Jump-ing the Bro-om, and the two eventually got married in June 2012. According to the actress, their marriage was preorda!ned by God.
“The first thing that God told me was that it was time to get out of a not-so-great relationship. The second thing that God told me was that it was time to be celibate. The third thing that God told me was that Devon was my husband.”
But it was when the two joined Oprah on the OWN Network’s Super S*ul Sunday to discuss that we learned how their relationship is deeper than what they could ever express.
“I was rais-ed in the church. So from a very early age, I was taught, you know, wait–you gotta wait ’til marriage. And I definitely subscribed to that. But when I got in high school, I didn’t wait. But I was still telling people that I was waitng because I didn’t have enough courage to let people know that I made a different choice in my life.”
He continued: “I started pr*ach!ng when I was 15, so I was teaching people how to live. I felt like I was doing that publicly. But privately I was doing something different. And the public person and the private person were at war. I had no pe-ace.”
He goes on to discuss being in a bad relationship as well, and him speaking to God about helping him.
“I said, God, I don’t have enough strength to get out of this, but if you get me out of this relationship, then I am going to practice ‘the wait.’ so I can align my public self with my private self so I can have peace.”
And since that day, he began practicing celibacy with an iron fist and didn’t br**k his promise until his wife Meagan came along:
“Because if I have no discipline in s** before marriage, then I have no discipline in s** after marriage. What you’ve practiced, and what habits you have, are still there.”
And what Meagan shared what she learned in waiting too: One of the most profound moments came when Meagan told it like it is on how we can determine who is husband material. When Oprah asks, “Women usually say, ‘I can wait.’
But if I don’t at some point, I am going to lose him. So your waiting doesn’t work unl-ess the other person is waiting too right?” “That was a big !ssu* for me because if he does leave me because I am not worth him waiting in his eyes, then he’s not my husband.
If someone does not think I am w-ort-hy of wanting to be the best version of myself, and wanting to get he-aling, and wanting to set myself up for success, if they won’t do that with me, then I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with them.”