Beverly Johnson got exactly what she asked for on her birthday: to get married.
via: Page Six
During an appearance on Sirius XM’s “Sway in the Morning” Friday, the iconic supermodel revealed that she and the financier secretly tied the knot in Las Vegas last year.
“Two days before my birthday, Oct. 13, [Brian] kept saying, ‘What do you want for your birthday?’” Johnson, 71, recalled.
“I sat up in the bed on Oct. 11 and said, ‘I know what I want for my birthday. … I want to get married.’”
The cover girl added that Maillian then said “okay,” and she told herself, “‘Did he say okay? Oh s—t.’”
Although Maillian, 73, wanted a wedding with around “1,500 people,” Johnson got him to agree to a smaller ceremony, and the pair officially became husband and wife two days later.
“It was just the right moment,” she said of their spontaneous decision.
Despite the nuptials being very last minute, the couple was joined by some of Johnson’s best friends, who she said “orchestrated” the whole thing.
The pair eventually decided on a “really beautiful” chapel and — despite worrying Maillian would change his mind — the lovebirds’ big day went off without a hitch.
However, Johnson said she told Maillian — with whom she has been for 12 years — that she wanted “a piece of property” rather than a ring.
“I got a lot of rings!” she joked.
Johnson, who made history as the first black woman on the cover of US Vogue in 1974, was previously married to real estate agent Billy Potter from 1971 to 1975.
She later wed music producer Danny Sims, who is the father of their daughter, Anansa, 45.
The former couple was married from 1977 to 1979.
Despite previously saying she “never” wanted to get married again, Johnson told host Sway Calloway that her idea of marriage completely changed once she met Maillian later in life.
“It’s so profound because it’s on a totally different level,” she said on the radio show.
“Most certainly on a spiritual level as we get closer to our God — whoever that may be — and each day and moment becomes so precious.”
Not only are they older and wiser, but Johnson said she and the financier relate on much deeper levels, explaining that while she was “breaking barriers in the modeling world he was doing that on Wall Street.”
“He is really brilliant,” she gushed of her now-husband.
The duo announced they were engaged in 2020. Johnson made it clear at the time that she didn’t want her own diamond sparkler, so Maillian borrowed his mother’s ring for the impromptu proposal.
“Brian’s 88-year-old mother took off her wedding ring and passed it down the table till it got to Brian and he got down on one knee,” the “Good Deeds” actress previously explained to People.
“I was sobbing uncontrollably and he said, ‘Will you marry me?’ and I said, ‘Yes!’ Finding the love of my life at this point in my life has been amazing.”
