Robin Givens

Well known actress Robin Givens is author of Grace Will Lead Me Home, a vividly evoked and intelligent memoir chronicling her tumultuous marriage to Mike Tyson and her path to salvation through religion and family. Givens is a passionate and gifted speaker on domestic violence.

As an actress, her big break came on Head of the Class, playing Darlene Marriman, a wealthy and gifted high school student. After appearing on television shows Beverly Hills Madam and The Penthouse, she soon appeared on the big screen in Rage in Harlem and in the hit comedy Boomerang opposite Eddie Murphy.

In 1988, Givens married boxing legend Mike Tyson and the union put her into the national spotlight when the marriage ended sixteen months later after rumors of abuse surfaced. Givens says that he brutalized her throughout their marriage and has chosen to break her silence about the violence in her memoir, Grace Will Lead Me Home.

"I looked back and I said, 'What happened to me?'" says Givens. "When the adrenaline left my body and I saw everything for the first time, I felt shame and embarrassment and overwhelming guilt for what I had done and had allowed to happen in my life and in the lives of people that I love. I became very sad. I mean, very, very sad to the point that I was immobilized. I was diagnosed as clinically depressed. It took me a while to realize I was depressed and to get help and to get over the shame of what had just robbed me of so much time."

While writing her memoir, Givens discovered a new passion as an author. Her memoir chronicles her life as it began two generations before she was born and explains her love of God, describing faith is an inherited trait in her family. Givens narrates her family's secret legacy of intergenerational violence and how the consequences haunted her own life through her marriage to Tyson.

As a result of her experience and the publication of her book, Givens also found her voice as an effective advocate for the victims of domestic violence. She is a much sought-after speaker for groups all over the country who want to hear from this smart, courageous woman about her ability to successfully overcome the impact of domestic violence in her life.