Adrian Holmes and Caroline Chikezie have made it a habit to showcase their love and affection. On the red carpet at the 57th NAACP Image Awards, they couldn’t help but put on a little PDA while reflecting on their careers.
“I’m happy that I’m here with my beautiful wife and that we get to celebrate this together and that she got to be on the show this season,” Holmes told Mariel Turner of theGrio. Chikezie portrayed Dominique Warren, the leader of Geoffrey’s (Jimmy Akingbola) former London gang, and it marked the first time she and Holmes had ever shared a scene together.
Chikezie added that it was one of the best days of her career being opposite her husband on set.
“I just felt so supported,” she said. “‘I’d do my scene and I’d look over and he would be there and I’d go and get a quick hug, you know, and I grab and grab his bum, you know, we don’t have to worry about HR, lots of grabbing of the butt.”
The veteran actors have kept their marriage stronger than ever as they navigated roles on successful shows. Holmes starred as Phillip Banks for four seasons of “Bel Air” while Chikezie portrayed noted gangster Noma in “Power Book II: Ghost.”
While both champion “respect” as one of the main sticking points for keeping the love going strong, Holmes said staying in the moment has been a blessing.
“It’s like just finding the joy every day and celebrating and just having fun and and and choosing each other, you know, every day,” Holmes said. “It’s being present and understanding how lucky and blessed you are to have each other because it’s not easy in this world right now, you know it’s a dark, crazy time we’re in and so the fact that we have each other to support each other and it’s a blessing and we’re stronger together.”
To close out Black History Month, the pair touted two names as inspirations to them in Hollywood. For Chikezie, it’s Ryan Coogler, who is inspiring her to even step behind the camera. For Holmes, the answer was an easy one.
“Michael Jackson,” he said. “He’s my North Star.”
