Larenz Tate has made it his mission to raise his sons to be respectful, caring, and thoughtful to women. 

On a new episode of TV One’s autobiographical series, Uncensored, the actor candidly revealed details about his 20-year relationship with wife Tomasina Parrott, along with the characteristics that he’s teaching his children through example. 

Larenz, who is celebrating his 45th birthday today, was all smiles as he recapped on the day he met his actress wife at a Jamie Foxx party. 

“Tomasina is incredible,” he shared remising about the year they met. “We met almost 20 years ago at All-Star weekend in Oakland.”

Fast-forward to today, the lovebirds have three handsome sons; Miles, 14, Zander, 12, and Zion, 6.

“My wife and I always talk about where we are in our relationship and the things that we love. Our children are truly the center of that on so many levels,” he shared. 

Diving into the struggles of being a Black boy/man in today’s society, Larenz expressed his goals to make sure his sons are schooled on knowing that negative stigmas should never define you. 

“You are going to have great times; you’re going to have high and lows. You’re going to have missteps, but understand with your missteps comes consequences, and your consequences are always going to be more severe than those who don’t look like you," he expressed. "It is what it is. And we have seen that firsthand. […] I’ll say, ‘don’t let that define you.’”

In his lessons to his sons includes how to interact with women. “We are not going to be wildin’ out and doing crazy things with women where you are toxic, you know calling them crazy names and putting hands. We are not doing all of that.”

Some of these important lessons on love were graciously given to the Love Jones actor by his mother, “My mother always said if you are in a situation and it gets really to a point where it gets physical and all of that then you don’t need to be in it,” he shared. 

“That is one thing we can instill. You don’t want to normalize where it’s a woman hitting on a man, a man hitting on a woman just any of that stuff,” he shared. “We have to unlearn some of those— a lot of those— things that really affected us as a group. My wife and I have a communicating relationship. It’s not easy, but we rockin’. We 20 years in.”