Jennifer Hudson has never been married, and she says she was never the type who wanted to be. She opened up to Keke Palmer on the Tuesday, October 22 episode of the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast. The 45-year-old said her boyfriend Common is the one person who has changed her mind, according to Us Weekly.
Her exact words about him: “actually I would consider that with him.”
She did not say yes to anything. She did not announce an engagement. She said she would consider it, and coming from Hudson, that is a bigger sentence than it sounds.
Jennifer Hudson’s Perspective on Marriage
Hudson opened the topic by pushing back on an assumption. She told Palmer that people automatically assume women just want to be married, and that this is not always the case. She counted herself among the women it did not apply to.
Then she made the exception. Common, she said, is the only person she has felt this way about. She admitted she has never been the type who wanted to be in that space, and she has never been married. In this relationship, though, her answer shifted to something closer to OK.
Us Weekly noted she is still not totally sold on marriage as an idea. What she was sold on was him. She called the relationship amazing and beautiful, said the timing was amazing, and summed it up plainly. It’s love, she told Palmer.
Jennifer Hudson has been close to the altar before. She shares a son with her ex-fiancé, David Otunga. They never married.
Plenty of people say marriage is not for them and mean it right up until it is. Hudson’s version sounds less like a reversal and more like an honest edit. The rule held for everyone else. He is the footnote.
Common’s Commitment to Hudson
Common got there first, and he said so on television more than once.
Dating rumors started in 2022, but the pair did not confirm anything until January 2024. Common walked onto the stage of The Jennifer Hudson Show carrying flowers, and Hudson asked him on air whether he was single, because, as she put it, everybody wanted to know. He told her he was in a relationship with one of the most beautiful people he had met in life. He called her smart, down to earth and talented, and said she loves God. Then he listed the qualities he needs in a girlfriend. Every one matched the woman holding the microphone.
Later that month, on Today With Hoda & Jenna, he was asked whether Hudson could be The One. He described himself as a marrying type.
Common doubled down in July 2024. On “The Breakfast Club” he said, “If I’m going to get married, it’s to her,” and called it as simple as that. He added, with respect to the women he had dated before, that this was a really healthy and beautiful relationship.
Common, whose real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn, is 54. Before Hudson he was linked to Tiffany Haddish and Erykah Badu, among others.
So the timeline runs like this. Common revealed he is “a marrying type” when asked if Hudson could be “The One.” He said she was the only person he would marry in mid-2024. Two people, saying the same thing in different studios, months apart.
What Changed Since Her 20s
Hudson gave Palmer a reason for the shift, and it was about age more than about Common. In your 20s, she said, you have an ideal of love that is not really grounded in reality. Once you live through all of it, you get clarity about what love is and what you actually want from it. She said that is where she is now.
Nothing in that is a fairy tale. Hudson is describing what happens after the first engagement does not end in a wedding, after a career that runs on public attention, after years of knowing exactly what she does not want. Clarity like that tends to make a person pickier, and slower to say the word marriage out loud.
Which is why the order of events matters. Common talked about marriage early and often. Hudson waited, said it was not really her thing, and then named him as the single exception. One partner who is sure and one who is careful can still end up in the same place. They just arrive at different speeds.
Neither has said anything about a proposal. For now, the most Jennifer Hudson has committed to is a podcast answer and a word she has avoided for 45 years: consider.
Sources: Us Weekly
