Inside Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold’s Lifelong Friendship
Long before they started on Martin, Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold were best friends and roommates. In fact, they first starred together back in 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors, where they appeared in a singing and dancing trio.
Their friendship has spanned over 30 years through marriages, divorces, and career opportunities.
Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell maintained their friendship after the drama on ‘Martin’
Though we all know Arnold and Campbell from their roles on the hit sitcom, Martin, the actors knew each other long before making us laugh as Gina and Pam on the ’90s sitcom. Even after Campbell left the series after accusing Martin Lawrence of sexual harassment, Arnold maintained her sisterhood and friendship with the actor.
“The lawsuit was a very interesting thing to be a part of,” the Everybody Hates Chris actor said on Watch What Happens Live. “Tisha and I have been friends since childhood, and Martin and I are still friends. There’s a point where you have to be professional and a point where you have to be personal, and I was very well aware of separating the two, and Tisha always respected that. It was very weird, but I handled it as best I could.”
Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold have an unbreakable bond
All of these years later, Campbell and Arnold are closer than they’ve ever been. “We’re really alike even though most people—we don’t act [like] it,” Campbell told ESSENCE. “We’re very similar in the way that we’re givers. We give to our families; we give to our children, we give 100% to our work…we’re givers. I call it empaths. And sometimes, being an empath can work for you or against you.”
For Arnold, her friendship with the My Wife and Kids actor has been a wonderful example for her own teenage daughter. She explained to ESSENCE,
I’ve tried to teach [my daughter] to culminate her relationships that she has now. I said, think about it, Elijah. You’re only fourteen and you’ve got really cool friends. So, imagine when you guys are all fifty and sixty years old. You will have known these same people, who you love now, and can love fifty years from now. So, that’s kind of what Tisha and I have build our lives upon. [Things like] camaraderie, respect….and we’ve never had a fight.
Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell strengthed their friendship after their divorces
Though Arnold and Campbell never had a falling out, they did drift apart following their marriages as they were raising their children. However, as their marriages fell apart, they found their way back to one another.
“We reconnected, Tichina and I, and have not been separated since [my divorce],” Campbell told People in 2018. “We actually had a little bit of a split. She went and was living her life and I was living mine, and for about eight years we kinda just did that. And then all of a sudden we just came back together and there was this whole new relationship. [It’s] bigger, better, more beautiful, more sisterly.”
