(Photo credit: KeishaKnightPulliam IG)
Fans of The Cosby Show saw the adorable, “Rudy” character, Keisha Knight Pulliam, grow up right before our eyes. Now, as we’ve seen her blossom, find and lost love, become a parent, now it seems she has found the love of her life.
Pulliam, 41, just got engaged to actor Brad James, a rep for the actress tells PEOPLE. James, 39, got down on one knee and popped the question this month in Atlanta, where they both reside, with a custom diamond eternity band.
The newly engaged couple celebrated with immediate family, including Ella, Pulliam’s 3-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, during a “magical, intimate, COVID compliant evening filled with love” courtesy of event planner Scoobie West.
If you recall, Pulliam battled through a difficult divorce and paternity battle with her child’s father, former NFL player, Ed Hartwell
Pulliam and Hartwell surprisingly tied the knot before the New Year in 2016. Then in July of 2017, she announced she was expecting her first child. But initially, Hartwell denied being the child’s father and a host of other unfavorable comments that are now in the past.
Pulliam, as with most of the world, was shocked to learn that her then-husband, Ed Hartwell, of only 7 months had decided to serve her with divorce papers only a week after she announced that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child.
On Entertainment Tonight, she explained that she had actually drawn up the papers first, but she got pregnant she wanted to give the marriage another try.
(Photo credit: KeishaKnightPulliam IG)
“Early on in my marriage when I was faced with this [infidelity by him], I was ready to leave. It’s not OK,” Pulliam says. “In the process, I found out I was pregnant. And I had to take another hard look and decide if I wanted to try to work through this and forgive him for the sake of the child. Like, I had divorce papers ready. But……once I was pregnant I did decide to give him that one last chance. The part that hurt me the most when he filed for divorce was that he had asked me to give him another chance, and I was willing to do that and forgive him, for our family,” she claims.
But after her baby girl, Ella Grace, was born, and Ed admitted that it was indeed his child after a paternity test, he wanted to delay child support payments and fought for custody.
Keshia and her ex-husband Ed Hartwell are not only officially divorced, but the two have finally settled on custody of their adorable only child together. The former child star won big in an ugly custody and separation battle with the former NFL star, according to TMZ.
(Photo credit: Instagram)
Under their divorce agreement, Keisha was awarded primary custody of the couple’s one-year-old daughter, Ella Grace while Hartwell gets visitation rights and a monthly $3,007 child support bill.
But now James is the man in her life. James, who is best known for his role as Todd in Tyler Perry’s sitcom For Better or For Worse, has also appeared on Netflix’s Outer Banks and on the UMC series A House Divided. Pulliam wished James a happy birthday on social media earlier this summer.
While both Pulliam and James have been married before, the actress said, “I think it’s better when you’ve been married before because you’re very clear in what you don’t desire. It makes it so much clearer when you see what it is you do want.”
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