Exclusive Interviews
Actor and model Don Benjamin continues to expand in his career while also being a present husband and father. We first learned of the model in 2013, competing on America's Next Top Model Cycle 20, and now he's starring in major films like the recent Jordan Peele movie HIM and Adopted 2.
He was even the leading man in Cardi B's latest music video "Safe," which also features Kehlani. In an exclusive xoNecole interview, Don opens up about his family and this phase in his life.
"Honestly, the funny thing is, it's just like any other phase," he admits. "I just focus on work and growth and leveling up. I'm super excited about this moment because now, I'm finally tapping more into my acting side of stuff." He also shows off his acting skills on social media. Don, along with his wife, Liane V, often shares cute family skits on their respective Instagram and TikTok pages.
The couple share two kids, 2-year-old daughter Zaia Sky and Zaiden, who they had in June 2025. According to Don, Zaia is already following in his footsteps. "She's already doing more modeling jobs than me as of lately, and we want to get her in some acting. She loves the camera," he says. "It'll be nice to see if she follows in my footsteps, and I can kind of help line some things up for her."
Don and Liane have been married for four years, but had a very public breakup the year before. The Scared Famous star reveals how they did the work to heal and move forward together.
"We had our time to separate and work on self-growth, things that I needed to do for myself as a man, and working with life coaches and therapists, and she got the time to do what she needed to do. So when we came back together, we were in the right space mentally. We got a relationship coach that we can go through things with and talk about and work on and these things were important for us. Now, over the years, I feel like that actually helped us come closer together. That moment helped us come closer together."
"We had our time to separate and work on self growth, things that I needed to do for myself as a man, and working with life coaches and therapists, and she got the time to do what she needed to do. So when we came back together, we were in the right space mentally."
He continues, "I did what I had to do to understand [that] as a man, I never really had any male guidance in my life. So it was able to align me with the right coaches and pastors and therapists and people that I needed to align with to work on things that I had been dealing with in life. Then she got the space that she needed as a woman to work on her independence.
"We came back together strong, and now we were able to get married in the right space. A lot of times, people jump into marriage when they're not fully healed or in the right headspace. So we were able to get married in that right space. For us, it's been a beautiful thing, and we're able to use that as as an example."
Don also believes it's important to set an example for their kids, especially when it comes to love and respect. While the actor grew up without his dad, he has made it his priority to instill love in his kids by showing up for them and giving them words of affirmations.
As far as what's next for Don, he is starring and executive producing a paranormal activity film titled, holySmoke. "I'm loving the drama and horror space right now," he says.
"I always love a good romantic comedy, but right now. I seem to be getting reeled into all these horror films and thrillers and dramas."
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Feature image Nikita Melvil
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