During the first week of the year, Tichina Arnold had fans shook when she appeared on Deon Cole’s podcast, “Funny Knowing You,” and revealed she dated “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Brian Austin Green. Now, the ’90s heartthrob is telling his side of the story — which includes a pretty sad reveal.
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Appearing on the “Funny Knowing You” hot seat just two weeks after his former flame, Green cleared up his dating history and explained why he dated many Black women in the past.
“Hip-hop was my world. I was doing hip-hop clubs, I was going to all the places where hip-hop was existing, so when you’re dating someone, you usually date the people you’re around,” he told Cole. “So of course, I was dating majority Black women at the time, because it was like, we had common interests.”
Green noted he did not make a conscious choice to date someone culturally different because he felt they already shared the same culture through their love of music. He added that he dislikes looking at race when dating because it feels divisive and thinks it would be better if people considered cultural similarities instead.
“Race, for me, I hate that f***ing word. I hate the word ‘race.’ Like to me, they’re different cultures, and I think as soon as we start changing the perspective on the word race and instead using the word culture, it brings us down on a common level,” Green said.
After sharing his perspective, Green spilled the tea on his relationship with Arnold. He explained that the stars met while she was on “Martin” and he was on “90210,” and they bonded over music.
“She was singing. I was producing…we ended up because we were working together and we were around each other all the time. We just got along really well. So, we ended up fooling around and kind of dating,” he said.
Green admitted to Cole that, while he wanted to go public with his relationship, he didn’t feel comfortable to do so.
“I was really insecure and then I have someone who I’m really attracted to who’s telling me like, ‘you can’t tell anybody.’ I think for me it really triggered something, like, ‘I’m not really good enough for any of this. You don’t even want your friends to know that you’re hanging out with me,’” Green said.
“I wanted to [make the relationship public] in the beginning for sure and then I quickly felt like, ‘Oh okay….I have to shut the f*** up, you know, and sit in the back of the car like I’m happy to be in the car,” he added.
Just like fans were shocked when Arnold first revealed their secret romance, folks in the TikTok comments could not get enough of their surprise dating history.
“Who would have ever thought that David from Beverly Hills 90210 was scooping up Pam from Martin,” wrote one user.
“She dated him at the height of fineness!!! Geeeesh,” added another.
“I ALWAYS knew he was into block women from watching Beverly Hills 90210. He just had that sumthin sumthin,” commented another.
However, Green shared that the “Martin” star had a strict “nobody can know about us” rule that made him feel insecure.
“She was very clear on day one, nobody can know about this. Nobody,” Green said. “And so, I was in my early 20s. I was living in a culture that wasn’t really accepting of me… and then I had someone I was attracted to who’s telling me, ‘You can’t tell anybody.’ I think for me, it really triggered something like ‘Oh, okay. I’m not good enough for any of this.’ “
Although Arnold later changed her mind about that rule, Green added that it made him feel like their relationship was never serious in the first place.
“I think somewhere in my mind, I had that subconscious switch of this isn’t a real relationship, this is just a thing we were doing. Now, maybe her view of it has changed a little bit, but it didn’t even start in a healthy way,” he said.
Before finishing his side of the story, Green made sure to add that he has nothing but love for Arnold.
“Tichina, I love you! I’m not talking s*** about you,” he said as he laughed about the past.
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