Parenting & Family Quote by Boris Kodjoe

Kodjoe is selling a kind of modern romance that tries to dodge two cultural landmines at once: the fear of dependency and the myth of total self-sufficiency. The phrasing is careful and contemporary. “Very independent” functions like a credential, a way to reassure listeners he isn’t peddling old-school possessiveness or a co-dependent fairy tale. Then he pivots to the more vulnerable admission: wanting someone close. That “admit” is doing heavy lifting. It suggests we’ve been trained to treat desire for closeness as a weakness, especially for men and especially in a celebrity culture that rewards the performance of unbothered autonomy.

The line “We don’t need each other but we want to be with each other” is a neat rhetorical upgrade from necessity to choice. It reframes partnership as a daily decision rather than a shortage. In an era where relationships are often justified by practicality (finances, kids, stability) or dismissed as baggage, he positions intimacy as elective, not obligatory. That’s the subtext: commitment without captivity.

His real target is parenting. “Educate the kids with that” turns a marital philosophy into a value system, implying that what children absorb isn’t just the presence of two parents but the model of how two adults relate. It’s also a subtle pushback against the cultural script that kids should see either fierce independence or romantic fusion. Kodjoe argues for something harder to brand but healthier to live: interdependence without desperation, closeness without erasing the self.