Tracee Ellis Ross, 52, said she isn’t waiting for a partner to feel loved and credits her mother, Diana Ross, for teaching her how to build a meaningful life alone.
In an interview with Self Magazine published on Tuesday, the actor spoke about practicing self-care and how she learned to be comfortable on her own.
“I come from a lot of abundance, but all of the abundance that I enjoy is mine, that I’ve built,” Ross told Self Magazine. “And building my own life has made me very aware of what my mother built on her own and what it took for her to do that.”
Ross is the elder of two children from Diana Ross’s marriage to music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein. She also has an older half-sister from her mother’s relationship with Motown founder Berry Gordy and two younger half-brothers from her mother’s second marriage.
Ross said her mother’s success inspired her to do the same.
“[My mom] didn’t build the wealth she has, she didn’t build the career she made because of a man. The example that was set for me [was] that I didn’t need a man to build the life I wanted. It wasn’t, ‘Look at me,’ it was, ‘This is me.’ And that informed something very important for me foundationally,” Ross said.
Being comfortable alone starts with a deep understanding of how to care for herself.
“Knowing how to care for yourself is also how you teach someone how you want to be cared for. I’ve spent a lot of my life getting to know who I am,” Ross said.
“My favorite place to be is inside my body, to be present in my skin,” the “Black-ish” actor added.
Although Ross is content on her own, she says she is still open to love and is looking for a partner.
“What I don’t mind is being a poster child for living your life on your own terms, for not waiting for partnership to find joy and happiness, for curating and cultivating one’s own sense of self,” Ross said.
Ross says she seeks a partnership built on meeting as equals.
“I want a whole life and I want a real life, and I want a true life, and I want a partner that’s not going to sweep me off my feet, but is going to link arms with me. And that might not happen, and that’s OK,” she said.
A representative for Ross told Business Insider that the actor had no additional comment.
During an appearance on Michelle Obama’s “IMO” podcast in April, Ross said she prefers dating younger men because men her age are often “steeped in toxic masculinity.”
“I have long been past the age where I feel like it’s my job to teach somebody or grow them up,” Ross said. “That, I’m not interested in.”
Ross joins a growing list of women who have spoken openly about finding meaning in singlehood.
During a “Call Her Daddy” appearance in early July, Charlize Theron said that being a single mother was “one of the healthiest decisions” she ever made.
“With women, it’s always like, ‘Something must be wrong with her. She can’t keep a man.’ And it’s never part of the discussion of like, ‘Wow, she’s really living her truth. She’s living in her happiness. This is actually a choice that she made,'” Theron said.
Social scientist and author Bella DePaulo, now in her seventies, told Business Insider last year that she feels “happiest and most fulfilled living life as a single person.”
“There are so many different kinds of love other than romantic love. There’s love for friends, mentors, and teammates, as well as love for your work and your passions. And when we think about it that way, which is how many people who are single think about it, there’s a lot of love in our lives,” DePaulo said.
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