Essence Atkins

Challenges, when you're in a tumultuous situation, are an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to get closer to God, an opportunity to find and kind of reform yourself, and to figure out what really matters and what your priorities are.

What online dating did was offer me the opportunity to go out with a bunch of different people from different industries; I really didn't want to limit myself with people who are in the entertainment industry.

After 35, I felt like I'd been in these relationships; some were great, some weren't so great, but they weren't right partnerships.

I like to make Arroz con Gandules, rice with pigeon peas. My husband loves it. It's a Puerto Rican dish my mother taught me.

I attended Professional Children's School in Manhattan because my ballet and modern dance schedules were intensive and had started to interfere with regular school hours.