Keep Coretta Scott King's name out of your mouth, Jonathan Majors.
That's what Scott King's daughter, Bernice King, said after Majors invoked her mother's name in a recent interview, comparing his girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, to the civil rights leader. The former Marvel star had been talking about how loyal Goodha has been since he was convicted in December of assault and harassment against an ex-girlfriend.
“[Good’s] an angel,” Majors told ABC News this week. “She has held me like a Coretta [Scott King]. I am very blessed to have her. The relationship is still fresh, but you know, I think I found it.”
Although Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., did not explicitly respond to Majors' statements, she shared some thoughts about the use of her mother's name on Tuesday. x formerly Twitter.
“My mother was not supportive,” wrote the lawyer, minister and executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. “She was a peace advocate before she met my father and she was instrumental in getting him to speak out against the Vietnam War. Please understand… my mom was a force.”
King then shared a link to an article she wrote for HuffPost in 2017 in which she talked about her mother's many accomplishments before, during and after marrying MLK Jr.
“Before she was king, my mother was a civil rights activist, a member of the NAACP and the Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees at Antioch College,” King wrote at the time. “Coretta Scott was determined that her life would serve to help others. “She was already a woman of great character.”
This week's interview was not the first time Majors compared himself to MLK Jr., or one of his associates, to Coretta Scott King. In an audio clip played in court during his trial, the actor criticized his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, for not living up to the standards set by the wives of famous black men and insisted that she support him as Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama supported their respective partners.
“I am a great man. A great man,” Majors said in the recording. “I am doing great things, not only for myself but for my culture and for the world. Actually, that's the position I find myself in. The woman who supports me must be a great woman.”
Of the recording, Majors told ABC News that he was “giving an analogy of what I aspire to be. … I need her to make the same sacrifices that I'm making.”
Times staff writer Greg Braxton contributed to this report.
