Three years after closing the chapter on her 14-year marriage, Tia Mowry is speaking candidly about the inner work that has brought her to a place of genuine contentment and hinting that a new chapter in her love life may already be underway.

The 47-year-old actress, best known for her roles in Sister, Sister and Family Reunion, sat down with PEOPLE at the 2026 Essence Black Women in Hollywood event in Los Angeles on March 12, where she reflected on the personal growth she has experienced since finalizing her divorce from Cory Hardrict in 2023.

Learning the power of boundaries

For Mowry, the past three years have been defined by one word above all others: boundaries. She describes her approach to them as deeply tied to her sense of security the more settled she feels within herself, the more freely she can engage with the world around her.

When she feels confident about something, she is open to discussing it, understanding that outside opinions are simply noise that cannot shake her. But when she is still working through something privately, she pulls back and protects that space until she is ready.

It is a framework she says has given her something she actively guards: peace of mind. Whether it is a topic she is not yet ready to discuss publicly or a situation she is still processing, creating that boundary, she explains, is how she preserves her emotional well-being.

Embracing solitude as a turning point

The road to that clarity was not always easy. In the year following her split from Hardrict, 46  with whom she shares son Cree, 14, and daughter Cairo, 7  Mowry made a candid admission on social media that resonated with many of her followers. She had never truly been alone before.

Between a career that kept her constantly surrounded by people, family commitments, and growing up alongside her twin sister Tamera, solitude had been almost entirely absent from her life. When it arrived after the divorce, it initially felt unfamiliar  but she leaned into it anyway.

What she found on the other side of that discomfort was something she had not expected. Rather than feeling like a loss, the quiet became a source of renewal. She began to view those solo moments not as something to endure but as an essential part of maintaining her mental and emotional health, a way of refreshing her mind and spirit on her own terms.

Documenting the journey

Mowry brought viewers along for part of that post-divorce transformation through her We TV reality series Tia Mowry: My Next Act, which aired from October to November 2024. The show offered an unfiltered look at how her day-to-day life had shifted  navigating co-parenting, rediscovering her identity outside of her marriage, and continuing to build her career on her own terms.

She has spoken openly about her decision to be vulnerable on camera, framing it not as oversharing but as a deliberate act of service. Everything she does publicly, she says, is driven by a clear sense of purpose  a desire to empower, inspire, and educate wherever she can. Sharing her lower moments, she believes, is part of what makes that connection with her audience real and meaningful.

A new relationship on the horizon

Now, it appears that all of that inner work may be leading Mowry somewhere new  and perhaps someone new. Recent social media posts have sparked widespread speculation among fans that the actress could be in a relationship, and when PEOPLE caught up with her at the Jhpiego Laughter Is The Best Medicine Gala in Los Angeles on March 18, she did little to dispel the excitement.

She was playful and warm but careful with her words, choosing not to confirm specifics about the mystery man appearing in her posts. What she did make clear, however, is that she is in a genuinely happy place one she feels she actively created for herself.

After spending a long stretch in solitude, she says, she used that time to get clear on who she is, what she wants, and what she needs from a relationship. The person who has since entered her life, she suggests, is not a coincidence. She describes it as the result of intentional thinking  of deciding what she deserved and trusting that it would come.

Moving forward with intention

What emerges from Mowry‘s story is a portrait of a woman who has done the quiet, unglamorous work of rebuilding and come out the other side more grounded than before. She is not rushing to explain herself or perform a version of healing for public approval. Instead, she is setting the terms of her own story, sharing what she is ready to share and protecting what she is not.

For a woman who spent much of her adult life in the public eye first as a teenager, then as a wife and mother that sense of ownership over her own narrative may be the most meaningful thing she has found in the years since her divorce. And if happiness, in whatever form it takes, is now part of that picture, she has more than earned it.

EXCLUSIVE : PEOPLE.COM