When actress Phylicia Rashid, who has walked down the aisle three times, said during an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s Where Are They Now that she never felt like she was married, her statement reflected the difficulties she had in her real-life relationships with her past spouses.

She stressed throughout the interview that people should marry in order to make a life together, but she didn’t feel like she’d ever been married.

The actress also discussed how the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show gave her character Clair Huxtable and actor Bill Cosby’s character Cliff Huxtable a “fresh perspective” on “marriage life and the relationship between husband and wife.”

Rashd played Clair, a wealthy attorney, Cliff’s wife, and mother of five children on the show. Her achievements won her multiple Emmy nominations, the title of television icon, and the admiration of the public.

Despite her inability to maintain her real-life connections, the actress went on to say how people reacted to and learned from her on-screen persona. “I think [The Cosby Show] really brought marital life and husband-wife relationships, as well as surviving children together, to a whole new level,” the actress stated.

She went on to say that her character [Claire] was regarded in high regard by the audience, who repaid her on-screen husband’s respect.

That last phrase implies that the actress holds both the husband and the wife equally responsible for the success or failure of a marriage.

Rashd married dentist William Lancelot Bowles Jr. for the first time in 1992. They had a son, William Lancelot III, the following year. Their marriage, however, barely lasted three years, since they divorced in 1975.

However, three years after her divorce from her first husband, she married Victor Willis, the main vocalist of the Village People group. Willis and she were married for four years before divorcing in 1982.

In 1985, Rashad married former footballer and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad for the third time. Ahmad proposed to her on national television during a pre-game program from Pontiac, Michigan, and she married him. At halftime, the actress concurrently accepted a proposal from an NBC studio in New York.

They welcomed their first child together, Condola Phylea Rashad, in 1986.

Rashd held a special place in her heart for this marriage, and she believed she had found the love of her life in Ahmad. In a 1987 interview with The Morning Call, the actress said that if he died, she would hurl herself into the cremation pyre, much as Indian ladies did when their husbands died.

Despite her devotion to love, though, it came to an end. Rashd and Ahmad divorced in 2001, 16 years after they married.

Perhaps she never had the opportunity to enjoy a truly happy marriage since she struggled so much in her love life. As a result, her statement.