Tichina Arnold has never really been shy about who she is, on screen or off, and now she is just as blunt about who she is attracted to. The comedy veteran recently looked back on her brief relationship with Brian Austin Green and said that dating him made her realize she is simply drawn to Black men, full stop. Her reflection turns a quick Hollywood fling into a bigger conversation about preference, legacy, and what it means to date with a clear sense of self.
The one time Tichina Arnold dated a White celebrity
For most fans, the idea that Tichina Arnold once dated a White heartthrob sounds like a plot twist from one of her sitcoms, not a real-life chapter. She has long been associated with Black love stories on screen, so hearing her describe Brian Austin Green as the “one White guy” she dated instantly grabbed attention. In a recent conversation, she explained that she had always been vocal about loving Black men, which is why she framed that relationship as a rare exception rather than a hidden pattern.
Arnold put it plainly, saying, “Well, I did say the actor that I dated and the one White guy that I dated,” before adding that the experience itself was not some horror story but simply “different” from what she was used to, a moment she shared while reflecting on that one White celeb in her dating history. By naming the relationship so directly, she set the stage for a larger point: she was not trying to shame interracial dating, she was simply mapping out how that one detour clarified what feels right for her.
Brian Austin Green and the “other side” of dating
Once she identified Brian Austin Green as that “one White guy,” Arnold went a step further and unpacked what the relationship taught her. She described the time with him as something she needed to experience so she could understand “the other side,” a phrase that captured how foreign the dynamic felt compared with her usual partners. It was not that Brian Austin Green, known to many from his Beverly Hills, 90210 fame, did anything wrong, but the connection did not sit in the same groove as the relationships she had with Black men.
Arnold explained that she views that chapter as a kind of personal field trip, saying, “I think in life I had to experience that so I know what the other side is,” before adding that the situation “simply wasn’t for” her, a reflection she shared while talking about dating Brian Austin Green. That clarity did not come with bitterness, just a sense that she had crossed something off her list and could now move forward knowing exactly what did and did not fit her life.
“I really love Black men”: preference, legacy, and opting out
Where Arnold’s story really sharpens is in how she talks about legacy. She did not just say she prefers Black men, she framed it in terms of where her energy, resources, and future should go. At one point, she recalled telling herself, “You’re gonna share your riches and your legacy with someone White, so I’m getting off this train,” a line that shows how seriously she takes the idea of building with a partner who shares her cultural grounding. For her, the question was not only who she is attracted to in the moment, but who she wants to stand beside when it is time to pass something on.
That internal conversation ended with a simple, decisive conclusion: “I really love Black men.” She tied that realization directly to her choice to step away from the relationship, explaining that once she thought about where her “riches” and “legacy” would land, she decided to remove herself from that situation and lean into what felt authentic, a decision she described while talking about how she got off that train. In her telling, it was less a dramatic breakup and more a grown woman choosing alignment over curiosity.
How dating outside her race reinforced what she already knew
Arnold has been clear that she did not walk into her relationship with Brian Austin Green as a blank slate. She already knew she was drawn to Black men, but she was open enough to see what dating outside her race might feel like. After sharing that she had a past relationship with Brian Austin Green, she explained that stepping into that space only reinforced what her instincts had been saying all along. The experience became proof that her long-standing attraction was not just habit or environment, it was who she is.
She described how, after giving that relationship a real chance, she ultimately decided to remove herself because it did not match the way she wanted to love and be loved, a point she made while revisiting how dating a White man only strengthened her commitment to Black partners. In her view, trying “the other side” did not change her, it clarified her, and she now talks about that clarity with the same comedic ease she brings to her roles, but with a very real sense of conviction underneath.
Owning attraction without apology
When Tichina Arnold says she is “just attracted to Black men,” she is not whispering it like a confession, she is stating it as a fact about herself. In recent comments, she connected that line directly to her time with Brian Austin Green, saying that relationship made her realize that her pull toward Black men is not negotiable. The way she tells it, she went into the situation open-minded, came out with more data, and landed right back where she started, only now with a story to back up her preference.
Reporting on her remarks notes that Tichina Arnold and Brian Austin Green dated in the past and that she now credits that relationship with helping her see that she is “just attracted to Black men,” a conclusion she reached after reflecting on how the pairing felt compared with her usual partners, as described in coverage of how dating Brian Austin Green shaped her thinking. By framing her attraction in such straightforward terms, she sidesteps the pressure to universalize her dating life and instead models what it looks like to name a preference without turning it into a debate.
What her candor means for fans and for Hollywood
Arnold’s honesty lands differently because of who she is in the culture. As an actor who has spent decades portraying Black women in relationships with Black men, from sitcom husbands to complicated on-again, off-again partners, her off-screen choices inevitably get read alongside those roles. When she says that a relationship with Brian Austin Green helped her see that she is, in her words, “just attracted to Black men,” it feels like a rare moment where the personal and the public line up in a way fans can immediately recognize. She is not reinventing herself, she is confirming what her audience has probably sensed for years.
Coverage of her remarks underscores that point, noting that Tichina Arnold and Brian Austin Green once dated and that she now openly credits that experience with reinforcing her attraction to Black men, a dynamic summed up in reports that dating Brian Austin Green made her realize exactly where her heart sits. In a Hollywood landscape that often treats interracial pairings as a default sign of progress, Arnold’s story is a reminder that real progress also looks like Black women feeling free to say, without apology or performance, that their deepest pull is toward Black men and that their legacy, as she put it, should reflect that truth.
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