The singer, actress and mom, 26, opens up in this week's issue about healing after a hard year and her lighthearted new film 'You, Me & Tuscany'
NEED TO KNOW
- Halle Bailey opens up in this week’s issue about her mature new role in You, Me & Tuscany
- She shares how she identifies with her character finding her way after missteps
- Following her tumultuous split from rapper DDG last year, she says she’s doing “great”
Halle Bailey is a woman on the verge. “I’m 25, turning 26 in two weeks,” she says as she sits down with PEOPLE ahead of her March 27 birthday. “Little Halle is still in there. I still try to feed the little girl in me . . . but grown Halle is just a little bit less shy and more confident in herself.”
At the moment, grown Halle is also pretty tired, following a long day of promoting her new film in picturesque Napa, Calif. After making a splash as Ariel in Disney’s live-action 2023 remake of The Little Mermaid, Bailey is back on the big screen, this time making a mess of things as Anna, a sweet-faced grifter at the heart of the romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany.
Credit: Ian West/PA Images via Getty
She stars opposite smoldering Bridgerton alum Regé-Jean Page. “It was so much fun getting to explore our characters together,” she says. “We’re kind of opposites, and I love that.” As someone who knows what it’s like when life doesn’t go as planned, she found common ground with her character.
“I was really able to resonate with Anna as a young woman who is finding her way,” says Bailey, who last year went through a tumultuous split from rapper DDG (born Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr.), 28, with whom she shares 2-year-old son Halo. “I saw myself in her a lot—someone who gets it wrong sometimes, but still has the courage and the gumption to get back up again.”
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Bailey’s early road to fame didn’t seem to have many bumps. Blessed with an angelic set of pipes, she, along with older sister Chloe, now 27, caught the attention of Beyoncé as teens back in 2013 when their cover of her song “Pretty Hurts” went viral on social media. From there Queen Bey took them under her wing and into her Parkwood Entertainment management company.
As R&B duo Chloe x Halle, they earned five Grammy nods. The sisters also starred as twin athletes in Grown-ish, Freeform’s Black-ish spinoff for the Gen Z crowd. Next Disney came calling with a major offer. The colorblind casting of Bailey as Ariel drew both praise and backlash, but her fame only grew. “I’m gonna look at this age and be like, ‘Wow, this was a really good year for me,’ ” she told PEOPLE ahead of the film’s May 2023 premiere.
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Back then she said part of that joy came from her romance with DDG. The young pair appeared head over heels in love and welcomed Halo in December 2023. Initially their split in 2024 seemed amicable, but the next year both stars were granted restraining orders amid claims of domestic violence and a battle for custody of Halo.
Now, with the drama behind her and a custody agreement in place, Bailey says simply, “I’m great” when asked how she’s doing these days. She adds, "I'm just grateful to be here."
Gratitude is something the Atlanta native learned to embrace early. She credits her parents, Courtney, a former recruitment specialist, and Doug, a former stockbroker, for providing her and her three siblings (including older sister Ski, and her younger brother Branson) with a strong foundation.
“A lot of it is about remembering where you come from, staying grounded,” she says of how she and Chloe were taught to handle their celebrity.
Credit: Shayan Asgharnia/August
Though Bailey never considered herself a child star, she learned early on how fickle fame can be. “This industry has a lot of ups and downs and hot and cold moments where you just gotta coast,” she says. “But you have to be sure of yourself and who you are so that you can just ride the wave and feel comfortable in whatever happens.”
Another thing she learned to have is perspective. “None of this is real anyway,” says Bailey, surrounded today by the rolling hills of a Napa winery that mimic the vistas in her film. “Like it’s a really cool experience that we get to be onscreen and play make-believe and people go to the theater and love it or they don’t. But you also have to remember that you’re a real person.”
Credit: Halle Bailey/Instagram
Bailey started drawing those lines for herself back when fans first speculated she was pregnant following the release of Mermaid. She chose not to confirm her pregnancy or her son’s birth until she was ready, later explaining in a tearful 2024 speech at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood honors: “Halo was my gift. He is the greatest blessing, and I had no obligation to expose him, me or my family to that unyielding spotlight.”
These days, the tot makes occasional smiley appearances on his mom’s social media, and she says he’s helped her mature. “I think after I had my baby I was like, I’m grown-grown now,” she says with a wink to her Grown-ish past. “He’s made me more sure of myself and confident in my voice. ‘Stronger’ is my word for this year.”
Credit: Giulia Parmigiani/Universal Pictures
With Tuscany, Bailey’s excited to act her age. “This is the first time where I’m actually getting to play an older version of myself,” she says excitedly.
And after navigating her own and her character’s ups and downs, she hopes other young women see “you’re not alone in this topsy-turvy roller coaster of life."
You, Me & Tuscany is in theaters April 10.
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