Bernice King defends her mom after Jonathan Majors interview

Bernice King asserts her mom ‘wasn’t a prop’ after Jonathan Majors invoked her name

Split: left, Bernice King wears a blue blazer with a pearl and bronze necklace; right, Jonathan Majors wears a black tuxedo

Jan. 10, 2024 2:36 PM PT

Keep Coretta Scott King’s name out of your mouth, Jonathan Majors.

That’s what Scott King’s daughter, Bernice King, had to say after Majors invoked her mother’s name in a recent interview, likening his girlfriend, actor Meagan Good, to the civil rights leader. The former Marvel star had been speaking about how loyal Goodhas been since he was found guilty in December of assault and harassment against a former girlfriend.

“[Good’s] an angel,” Majors told ABC News this week. “She’s held me down like a Coretta [Scott King]. I’m so blessed to have her. The relationship is still fresh, but you know, I think I found her.”

Though Bernice King — the youngest daughter of Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — did not explicitly respond to Majors’ statements, she shared some thoughts about the use of her mother’s name Tuesday on X , formerly Twitter.

“My mother wasn’t a prop,” wrote the lawyer, minister and chief executive of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. “She was a peace advocate before she met my father and was instrumental in him speaking out against the Vietnam War. Please understand…my mama was a force.”

King then shared a link an article she wrote for HuffPost in 2017 in which she spoke about her mother’s many accomplishments before, during and after she married MLK Jr.

“Before she was a King, my mother was a civil rights activist, a member of the NAACP and the Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees at Antioch College,” King wrote at the time. “Coretta Scott was determined that her life would serve to lift others. She was already a woman of great character.”

This week’s interview wasn’t the first time Majors had equated himself to MLK Jr., or one of his partners to Coretta Scott King. In an audio clip played in court during his trial, the actor criticized a former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, for not living up to the standards set by spouses of famous Black men and insisted that she support him like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama supported their respective partners.

“I’m a great man. A great man,” Majors said in the recording. “I am doing great things, not just for me but for my culture and for the world. That’s actually the position I’m in. The woman who supports me needs to be a great woman.”

Of the recording, Majors told ABC News that he was “giving an analogy of what it is I’m aspiring to be. ... I need her to make the same sacrifices that I’m making.”

Times staff writer Greg Braxton contributed to this report.