People: 67-Year-Old Supermodel Beverly Johnson Engaged to Financier Brian Maillian

The former supermodel found love after believing she would never marry again. Though the couple was not planning to engage at their ages, they both look as happy as they were teenagers.

67-year-old former supermodel, Beverly Johnson, has found her true love and will marry him - 70-year-old financier Brian Maillian. The couple was not planning to get married anytime soon but after making the decision, they can not be happier about it.

In an interview Johnson did with People magazine, she mentioned that it is the first time in her life that she has a relationship with someone whose age is close to hers, and she enjoys how both have lived similar things throughout their lives. She added:

"Just finding the love of my life at this point in my life has been amazing."

Born in 1952, Johnson is also an actress, a singer, and a businesswoman. She has been previously married to real estate agent Billy Potter from 1971 to 1974 and later had a two-year marriage from 1977 to 1979 with music producer Danny Sims. The latter is the father of Johnson’s only daughter, Anansa.

BLACK MODEL

The first time Johnson made history was in 1974 when, as a supermodel, she became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Vogue Magazine. Later, she also was the first woman of color to be on the cover of Elle France in 1975.

Recently, she has been on the news by writing an Op-Ed in the Washington Post that pointed out issues on racism in the fashion industry. In the article, she talks about her experience from her beginnings until nowadays, when fighting against racism and exclusion in the business has not changed its status.

Her Op-Ed comes after Vogue’s editor-in-chief since 1988 and Condé Nast’s artistic director, Anna Wintour, released a memo apologizing for not giving enough space to the Black community of creators and artists in fashion to play a larger role in the industry.

FASHION CHANGE

In order to propose an immediate solution to stop racism in fashion, the former supermodel suggested in her article to follow the “Beverly Johnson Rule”, inspired by the “Rooney Rule” in the NFL.

The idea is that it would be required at least two Black professionals to be interviewed for influential positions, including chief executives of companies in the fashion, beauty, and media industries.

SPEAKING OUT

In 2014, several accusations were publicly made on actor Bill Cosby for having engaged in sexual assaults to many women in incidents that spanned from 1965 to 2008. Johnson was one of those women, and after so many years, she wanted to tell her story.

In an article she wrote in 2014 for Vanity Fair, she explained how in the mid-1980s, when being invited to act in a small role for The Cosby Show, the actor invited her to his house where he drugged her and took her out of his house since she managed to defend herself.

Johnson’s story was one of the multiple stories told by many different women especially actresses and models. In 2018, Cosby was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault and was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison.