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Johnson opened up about her secret Vegas wedding and finding love later in life.
What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas — unless you’re Beverly Johnson. The legendary model and actress recently revealed that during an October trip to Sin City, she was married on her birthday.
During a January appearance on Sirius XM’s “Sway in the Morning,” Johnson spilled the beans, giving the hosts all of the details of her nuptials with financier Brian Maillian, 74. She said the plans came together just two days before her 71st birthday on Oct. 13.
“Two days before my birthday, [on] Oct. 13, [Brian] kept saying ‘What do you want for your birthday,’ ” Johnson recalled. “I sat up in the bed on Oct. 11 and said, ‘I know what I want for my birthday.’”
“I said, ‘I want to get married,’” she continued. She added that much to her surprise, “He went, ‘OK.’ And I went, ‘Did he say OK? Oh sh–!’”
Two days later, the longtime couple, who had been engaged for almost a decade when they went public in 2020, tied the knot in an intimate ceremony at a wedding chapel. Johnson said her friends helped them find the chapel and pull off the logistics of the day.
“That was really beautiful,” she said.
She also noted she had her doubts going into the ceremony. “I’m thinking the whole time, ‘Oh, we’re gonna get into a fight,’ ” she recalled, laughing.
According to Johnson, Maillian wanted to throw a huge 1,500-person event, but it was Johnson who wanted something intimate and lowkey.
All in all, she said, “It was the right moment” to finally wed Maillian.
She jokingly pleaded with host Sway Calloway and his co-hosts to keep it a secret.
“Don’t tell anybody,” she teased.
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When asked by a co-host about finding love later in life, Johnson, who has been married twice before and has an adult daughter from her second marriage, explained that it’s “so profound.”
She continued, “It’s on a totally different level and most certainly on a spiritual level.”
Johnson was on the show to promote her new play “Beverly Johnson: IN VOGUE,” in which she stars and chronicles her life, career and involvement in the #MeToo era. The play also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Johnson becoming the first-ever Black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue.
“Beverly Johnson: IN VOGUE” runs through Feb. 9 at 59E59 theaters in New York.
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