What You Don't Know About Lisa Bonet

The following article mentions sexual assault allegations.

While some know Lisa Bonet primarily for her marriages to singer and songwriter Lenny Kravtiz, which ended in 1993, and to actor Jason Momoa (they announced her separation in early January 2022), she has always had her own career and been able to stand on her own two feet. After rising to fame as Denise Huxtable on "The Cosby Show" and its subsequent spin-off series "A Different World," Bonet has acted steadily throughout the years. She's also brought three children into the world. Daughter Zoë Kravitz was born in 1988, and Bonet's children with Momoa, Lola and Nakoa-Wolf, were born in 2007 and 2008, respectively. 

Bonet is a hard woman to find information about, a fact that she is likely quite pleased by. After all, as she told Porter magazine in 2018, she doesn't mind that her home in the mountains outside of LA is a little "reclusive." Here are a few things you might not know about Lisa Bonet.

Lisa Bonet and Marisa Tomei met for the first time when they were both cast on "A Different World." The two played roommates, an arrangement that they also lived out offscreen, and developed such a close bond that Tomei is godmother to all three of Bonet's children.

While the pair traded off questions for Interview magazine in 2021, they revealed just how deep their friendship goes back. After discussing their fondness for visiting flea markets and finding clothes (with Tomei admitting that they often ended up bringing home the same styles), Bonet admitted that Tomei helped guide her toward reusing and repurposing older items. She said, "I'm a total repurposer, so finding another life for something, and letting it live on is so satisfying. And then, knowing an object's history and craftsmanship, and you've got me hooked."

Tomei and Bonet's eldest child have also spoken for a publication. When Zoë Kravitz graced the cover of InStyle in 2018, the magazine had Tomei ask her a few questions for the interview. After Kravitz shared that she is entering an age where she feels comfortable with her body and embracing her inner beauty, Tomei brought things back to Bonet by adding, "You grew up knowing that — or being taught that. And I know because I'm best friends with your mom, and that's something she also taught me."

For her aforementioned chat with Porter magazine, Lisa Bonet invited the interview's author out to her home tucked away in the mountains outside of Los Angeles where she has lived for over two decades. After moving to the Topanga, California, home following her divorce from ex-husband Lenny Kravitz, Bonet built a home for herself and their daughter, Zoë Kravitz. 

Of her home, which the magazine described as adorned with Tibetan prayer flags and "daily mandalas of pebbles and beans on the path," Bonet shares that the area she lives in is just right for her. She explained, "I know people give Southern California a bad rap, but I love it here. You can create the life you want."

Bonet's home is also filled with animals, including two half-wolf, half-Malamute dogs, named Amba and Zion, and a donkey called Freya. While she admits that her home is "quiet, tranquil and, yeah, a bit reclusive," Bonet also says that those traits are perfectly in line with her own personality.

Lisa Bonet met her second husband, actor Jason Momoa, in 2004 or 2005. The two welcomed their first child together in 2007 and their second in December 2008. They remained together for years, marrying in 2017 before announcing their separation in January 2022.

Though they are both actors, the twosome only worked together professionally once when they co-starred in 2014's "Road to Paloma." Momoa was also billed as a writer, producer, and director on the movie, which is about the events following an Indigenous American revenge against the killing of his mother. He told Indian Country Today that Bonet's character is the type of person that his own character could fall in love with, but that the audience knows it can never work out.

When asked if the two had fun working together, Momoa said, "Yes but it's also nerve-racking because your love is there — but at the same time is a dream come true to work with her." 

During her conversation with pal Marisa Tomei for Interview, Lisa Bonet had some interesting remarks to make about authenticity. Despite having racked up enough birthdays to be considered middle-aged, Bonet insisted she was still working to discover who her own authentic self was. Interestingly, People pointed out that particular conversation took place in late 2021 — just before the announcement of her separation from Jason Momoa. 

Bonet apparently referenced her changing circumstances when she responded to a question from Tomei, who asked, "What's calling you?" Bonet replied, "Definitely learning how to be authentically me, learning to be new, and following this invitation from the universe to step into this river of uncertainty." As she continued, Bonet declared that the period of "uncertainty" she was entering into had presented her certain opportunities to focus on self-reflection. "We've eliminated all this extra noise," she explained, "and now it's time to grow our roots deeper into our own values."

In fact, Bonet appeared to be in a philosophical mode throughout the entire interview with Tomei. That was certainly the case when the two discussed their mutual interest in meditation, with Bonet once again indicating that her circumstances were far less solid than they had been. "​​The more still we are, the more clearly the guidance comes through in these very uncertain times," Bonet shared.

As a multiracial child — her father is Black, while her mother is white and Jewish — young Lisa Bonet grew up, she told the Washington Post in a 1987 interview, "in a little white neighborhood on the wrong side of the tracks." Her childhood, she admitted, led her to experience some confusion about where she fit in, given that she was both Black and white, while also neither. 

"I don't know, it was really weird," Bonet recalled. "Because, like, you know, the Black kids would call me 'Oreo,' and I just didn't feel totally at home and accepted with all these, you know, white rich people." Feeling caught in between two cultures, while accepted by neither, she found herself enveloped in confusion. "I had just a whole identity crisis," she said. "'Cause I had absolutely no idea where I belonged in life."

It was acting, she said, that allowed her to overcome those feelings and embrace herself for who she was. It all began when a friend invited her to attend an acting class, something in which Bonet admitted she had little interest, primarily due to her shyness, but decided to check out simply because she had little else going on. "So I went and the people were just so much fun that I went back," she added.