Mysterious, deep, and intuitive – or the epitome of beauty and femininity. Lisa Bonet can be described in many ways – but she’s perhaps best known for her iconic roles in The Cosby Show and A Different World.
Today, the 52-year-old star lives a different life – and she is a mother to 3 children, 2 of whom she shares with her ex-husband Jason Mamoa.
Lisa Michelle Bonet was born on November 16, 1967, in San Francisco, California, and became involved in the entertainment industry at an early age.
As a young girl, she started showing up at beauty competitions and made guest appearances in television series as a child.
In 1984, Lisa Bonet was cast as Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show. At the time, sitcoms were kind of dying out, but the successful The Cosby Show helped revive the genre. It became the number-one-rated show on television for five years in a row.
Lisa’s character, Denise, was the second-oldest child in the family, and Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad played her parents. Despite her lack of acting experience, Bill Cosby plucked Lisa to be part of America’s most popular fictive family.
Soon after the series launched, Lisa became known as TV’s hottest newcomer. She was a teen idol, a young adult’s heartthrob, and a fresh face everyone recognized.
But during her successful spell with The Cosby Show, Lisa raised many eyebrows after posing twice in adult magazines. She also starred in the controversial movie Angel Heart, a film that barely escaped an X rating after a hot love scene between her and Mickey Rourke.
“Filming [the sex scene in Angel Heart] consisted of three hours of intense lovemaking with blood pouring on us…It was a wild night,” Lisa told Interview Magazine in 1987.
The scene caused tensions between Bill Cosby and Lisa. Cosby wasn’t too happy with Lisa’s decision – it didn’t resonate with his clean, family-oriented show.
”A lot of people who work on Cosby said, ‘Bill’s not going to want you to do it,’ But I went to Cosby and he said, ‘Get out of my office and just do the film,’” Lisa explained.
Lisa Bonet daughter
In 1987, Lisa left The Cosby Show for a short while and got her own spin-off series called A Different World – a show that evolved around her character Denise. But when she became pregnant in 1998, she left A Different World.
In 1991 Lisa was fired from The Cosby Show because of ”creative differences.” After that, her Hollywood career started to fade, and she became more focused on her love life, partners, and children.
Her first child came when she was just 21. Bonet and ex-husband Lenny Kravitz (23 at the time) had Zoe in 1988, just a year after their Las Vegas elopement.
”It was interesting when we were first finding out about each other, that our backgrounds were so similar. When I first told him my mom was Jewish, and he said “So’s my dad,” I thought that was both unusual and enchanting. I felt like, “Okay, here’s someone who really knows how it is” Bonet later said when she talked about their relationship.
Five years later, the young couple divorced.
Reflecting on it later, they both realized they were too young when they were married. Now left to raise Zoe alone as a 26-year-old, Bonet had a lot to think about. In a 1999 interview not long later, Bonet said:
“Having Zoë saved my life. It was my wake-up call. There were so many things I didn’t want to pass on to her, so I really made a decision to change.”
The parents refused to allow the divorce to harm their young daughter and made it a point to remain friends for her sake. Even today, you will often see them attend events with one another, Bonet’s new husband Jason Mamoa beside them.
Bonet met Mamoa at a Los Angeles jazz club in 2005. While he is 11 years her junior, Mamoa admitted having a crush on her when he was young and watching The Cosby Show.
”I was like, ‘Mommy, I want that one,’” Momoa told James Corden in 2017.
In 2007, the pair had a daughter, Lola Iolani. A year later, their son Nakoa-Wolf was born.
Bonet has a new perspective on motherhood, especially as she raised her and Mamoa’s children in her 40’d rather than her early 20s.
Zoe herself is now 31, a famous actress in both film and television, and older than her mother was when she had her.
Zoe is also a singer and model. She married actor Karl Glusman a year ago. Her parents, Bonet included, could not be more proud of her achievements and levity. Lisa explained:
“She’s a well-balanced young woman, and so not affected […] for a parent to have a child out in our insane world and not have to worry about her […] that’s such a great thing.”
Bonet and Mamoa officially married in 2017, during a secret and intimate ceremony in Topanga, California.
“Some a—— leaked it,” Jason told Entertainment Tonight after the news was published and continued:
”You know what, I’ve been married to my wife for 12 years. It’s just a gathering of our families and celebrating our love.”
After their union, the couple continued to exude pride over each other and their children. Lisa, a very introverted and private maybe needed Jason, a ridiculously outgoing and open person. And vice versa.
Mamoa and Zoe often supported each other at events and on social media as well. Jason has clearly taken on the role of an additional caretaker for Bonet’s first child. Clearly, Bonet had settled with a partner who cared for her daughter as much as she did.
Perhaps that’s why it shocked many when the couple announced their divorce in January 2022. In Mars this year, Jason commented on their split as he was appearing on the Oscars red carpet.
”We’re not back together, we’re family,” the actor said.
16 years together is really no joke. Especially in Hollywood. I liked Linda and Jason together, but people grow apart; it is what it is.
All the best to them both!
