Blair Underwood announced he’s engaged to his longtime friend, Josie Hart.
Underwood, 58, took to Instagram on Tuesday, Nov. 22, to introduce his new fiancée.
“My personal highlight was walking the red carpet with my new fiancée Josie Hart,” Underwood captioned an Instagram photo of himself posing with his bride-to-be at the 50th International Emmy Awards.
He added:
“The future is crazy-bright, Girl! None of us ever know where God will guide our paths. She’s had my back since before I even became an actor. When a 41-year friendship slaps you in the back of the head & blossoms into romance, you stand up, pay attention & step forward in gratitude. Gently forward. It begins!”
Underwood and his ex-wife Desiree DaCosta, 55, were married for 27 years and divorced in 2021. They are parents to sons Paris, 26, and Blake, 21, and daughter Brielle, 24.
“It has truly been a beautiful journey,” Underwood and DaCosta said in a joint statement about their divorce.
Underwood and DaCosta are pictured with their children in 2010.
The actor said his ex-wife taught him the importance of listening to women.
“I grew up in a pretty traditional household,” he told Oprah in an interview.
“My father, who was a colonel in the Army, was the breadwinner, and my mother was the caretaker. He was responsible for putting food on the table and keeping us safe; she cooked, cleaned, and nurtured us. When my dad wasn’t around, my brother and I were the de facto men of the house.”
Underwood said his upbringing in a 2-parent household with a strong father figure prepared him for life as a dominant alpha man.
“I took this role to heart when I was young and feeling my way around my relationship with my wife-to-be, Desiree. I wanted to be her rock, her protector. If she had a problem, I wanted to solve it. I thought that’s what was expected of me.”
He said one night, DaCosta vented to him about “a heavy issue in her life.”
“She was venting, and I, as usual, interjected with a series of solutions. In her patient way, she turned to me, put her hand on my arm, and looked me straight in the eye. ‘Baby, I don’t need you to fix it,’ she said, ‘I just need you to listen to me.'”
“As a man, it can be confusing to know what role to play,” he continued.
“There I was, with the woman I would soon marry, trying to jockey for position in her life. What did it mean to be her significant other? That night, I understood that it meant I needed to hear her when she spoke to me. Trying to come up with ways to solve her problems gave me a false sense of control, and when I offered up unsolicited advice, I was disrespecting a strong woman who knew how to handle her own life. I was relieved as well; she didn’t expect me to always have an answer for her. She wasn’t coming to me for a repair. She just needed a shoulder to cry on.”
Underwood made his acting debut in the 1985 film Krush Groove.
He is best known for his role as attorney Jonathan Rollins in the NBC legal drama series L.A. Law from 1987 to 1994. He also starred in Sex and The City and had regular roles in High Incident (1996-97), LAX (2004–05), Dirty Sexy Money (2007–09), and more.