Peabo Bryson's Love Life: The Women Who Shaped His Journey — 25+ Photos

The man behind some of Disney's most beloved songs lived a love life just as powerful as any ballad he ever sang.

Peabo Bryson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning singer behind "Beauty and the Beast" and "A Whole New World," passed away on June 2, 2026, surrounded by family, after suffering a stroke. Before the tributes and the headlines, though, there were the women who walked alongside him through it all, and at least one who made sure he kept walking at all.

The Mother Who Made It All Possible

Before any of the romance, there was Marie Bryson. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Peabo grew up partly on his grandfather Woody Austin's farm near Mauldin, where, by his own account, he could "slop hogs and pick cotton with the best of them."

He also worked odd jobs as a teenager for a man in Greenville who ran an insurance company and a Pontiac dealership. "I was cleaning toilets, scrubbing floors and doing all kinds of odd jobs," he recalled. Being the oldest male in the family, he said, taught him to work hard, and he believed that discipline carried into his music.

But it was his mother who pointed him toward the stage. "She had a passionate love of music and would take me to hear all the giants in music all the time," Bryson recalled.

By the time he was five or six, he was singing along with the greats, stunning audiences around him. "I could sing most of their songs, astonishing people in the audience around me who couldn't believe that music was coming out of a little boy," he said. He credited her directly:

"If my mother hadn't done what she did, I wouldn't be here today."

But she also didn't exactly cheer when he announced his career plans. "Even though my mother introduced me to the music scene years before, she freaked out when I told her of my career plans for the future," he admitted.

She thought he would be influenced into bad habits, but he managed to convince his circle that music was his future. At 14, he was already singing backup for local band Al Freeman and the Upsetters; by 16, he had moved on to Moses Dillard and his Tex-Town Display.

From there, he spent several years writing songs and producing groups for Bang Records before launching his solo career in 1976 with a song called "Underground Music," followed by his debut album, "Peabo."

One of his proudest later milestones was buying his mother "a real nice home in Atlanta." As for his bachelor status back then, he kept things vague, saying with a grin, "Anything I say about that would break a lot of young ladies' hearts."

That, as it turned out, was not an empty boast.

The Engagement That Ended Without a Wedding

By the early 1990s, Bryson was one of the most celebrated romantic voices in music, and his personal life reflected that larger-than-life status. He became publicly linked to Juanita Leonard, the ex-wife of boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, a relationship that had been years in the making.

In a 1991 appearance on "The Joan Rivers Show," Bryson revealed he had given her a ring. "I met her 11 years ago. She was married to someone else. I never said anything," he said, meaning he had not pursued her while she was with someone else.

When Rivers pressed him on who the ex-husband was, Bryson replied, "He was the champ when I met him." He also made clear there were no hard feelings with Sugar Ray:

"It's been amicable so far. We come from the same neck of the woods."

Leonard, for her part, clarified through her attorney that while Bryson had given her a ring on Valentine's Day, it was not an engagement ring. "Actually it was a sweetheart ring," she told Jet at the time.

Still, the two became a constant twosome at the time, with Leonard appearing by his side at a New York gala celebrating the release of his album "Can You Stop the Rain."

Sadly, the relationship ended sharply. By late 1992, she had broken off the engagement and secretly married Atlanta Braves outfielder Otis Nixon in Jamaica just weeks later.

Bryson, speaking to the Tampa Bay Times in July 1993, addressed it with notable restraint, and what he said spoke to something deeper than just one breakup.

"The hardest thing during this has been to remain silent. But I have to adhere to my Southern upbringing. If a situation (in a relationship) is going to reflect negatively on someone, it's the man's duty to take the weight. I won't say anything bad about the women who have been in my life, and that includes Juanita. I won't refute anything that a woman says if it will cast her in a bad light."

He also opened up about the hidden toll that a performance career can take on personal relationships. According to Bryson, a partner can easily become anxious and unsettled just by knowing that an artist is constantly surrounded by temptations and opportunities to stray.

That was as far as he went publicly, and he never revisited it.

The Beauty Queen Who Never Made It to the Altar Either

After Leonard, Bryson was linked to Angela Thigpen, a former beauty queen from Virginia who had won titles including Miss Portsmouth Seawall, Miss Norfolk, and Miss Virginia Teen USA, and placed third runner-up in Miss Teen USA.

By the time they were together, Thigpen had moved well beyond pageants, acting in television and independent films, hosting an entertainment show called "World Beat" on Sun TV, and touring with the Broadway musical "Raisin."

The two were engaged during the 1990s, but like the relationship before it, the engagement did not lead to a wedding.

Thigpen went on to build a career in marketing and continued her work as a SAG-AFTRA actress, eventually settling in Atlanta, where she currently works as Director of Marketing and Advertising at Associated Oral Specialties, and as a certified phlebotomist with the American Red Cross of Georgia.

When news of Bryson's death broke, she posted a tribute on Facebook, a reel of photos accompanied by a caption that showed how much they had cared for each other.

"I'm going to miss you P! You changed my life. You were forever humble and helped so many. There will never be a voice like yours. As Roberta Flack used to always say, 'Your voice was anointed by God!' You had an amazing life, wife, son, daughter, and the rest of our crazy family. We are all going to miss you. God has a master class in his quire now."

Although there's no official information on whether they had kids together, Bryson's daughter, Linda, uses a hyphenated name on social media: Bryson-Thigpen.

Still, that's two engagements, neither of which became a marriage. The woman who would change everything came much later, and she arrived at exactly the right time.

The Woman Who Saved His Life

Tanya Boniface Bryson came into the singer's life at a point when he had nearly given up on finding a partner. He has credited Aretha Franklin with convincing him to keep waiting, and the timing bore that out. Boniface was 30 when they met, while Bryson was 56, and the age gap did not slow them down.

She had her own history in the music world before crossing paths with him. She had been a member of The 411, a British girl group that formed in 2002 and scored two hit singles before being dropped by Sony and disbanding.

After the group fell apart, she relocated to the United States to be with Bryson and found a second career in acting, appearing in films including "Becky & Berry" and "Cells," as well as the comedy series "Never Mind the Buzzcocks."

The couple married and eventually had a son, Robert Bryson, nicknamed Kit, who was born in 2018, and, according to family photos, sings in his school choir.

But beyond being his wife and the mother of one of Bryson's children, Boniface had saved the singer once before. In April 2019, he suffered a heart attack at their home in Georgia.

He pulled through thanks to Boniface, who performed CPR for approximately 34 minutes until medical crews arrived. Speaking in October 2025, Bryson was direct about what that meant:

"When I awoke five days later, I realized that whole ordeal that took about 34 minutes, and that's a long time not to be breathing. If she had not breathed for me that I would not have had any cognizant skills left."

A year after the incident, Boniface shared a photo from just before it happened on Instagram, featuring her husband and their son.

"How much difference a year makes! I wish I could go back a year ago today and whisper to myself 'don't worry everything is going to be ok,'" she said in the caption, adding thanks to the medical crew at Kennestone Hospital and signing off with the hashtag #myhusbandmyhero.

The New York Times confirmed that Bryson's survivors include Boniface, their son, his daughter from a previous relationship, and three grandchildren.

Whether performing under the stage lights or navigating the quiet complexities of his personal life, Peabo Bryson lived with the same depth, grace, and devotion found in his iconic music. The world has lost a true giant.