Thaddeus Bullard, better known to WWE fans as Titus O’Neil, is no stranger to the spotlight. A published author, a two-time finalist for the ESPN Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, and recipient of the prestigious 2021 Warrior Award, Bullard’s legacy extends far beyond the squared circle.
From being the #1 high school football recruit in the country to playing at the University of Florida, to becoming a WWE Tag Team Champion and inaugural 24/7 Champion, his path has been one of grit, leadership, and purpose. He’s also the proud father of three children, the founder of the Bullard Family Foundation, and the namesake of Thaddeus M. Bullard Academy in Tampa, Florida.
But as his children have grown and left the nest, Bullard is stepping into a new chapter, one focused on finding love.
Following in the footsteps of Queens Court, the series flips the script and spotlights three “Kings” looking for love: supermodel Tyson Beckford, NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, and Bullard himself. Hosted by Hollywood power couple Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete, the show brings together 21 women in search of love while setting the stage for romance, heartbreak, and self-discovery.
But for Bullard, joining a reality TV show to find love wasn’t his first thought; he needed some convincing. It was a conversation with his friend and the show’s producer, Will Packer, that changed his mind.
In our interview with Bullard, he discussed his decision to go on the show, the challenges high-income earners face while dating, and his frustration with contestants who felt entitled to the “Kings.”
QG: Why did you choose this platform to look for love?
TB: Well, I had a little nudging from the producer, Will Packer, who’s a really close friend of mine. And initially, I told him no, but once I did a little research in regards to what the show entailed and watched a couple of episodes of Queens Court, I was like, yeah, I’m in. Didn’t know who the other two kings would be; just knew that Holly and Rodney would be involved. So I definitely knew it wouldn’t be a train wreck simply because of the fact that Will was producing it and Holly and Rodney were a part of it.
QG: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced dating outside the show, especially as a high-income earner?
Thaddeus Bullard: I think that probably the biggest challenge is finding someone that has a genuine connection for genuine reasons. And you can sometimes sniff that out right away, and then sometimes you can’t. People put on very good representatives, and then once certain things are brought to their attention in regards to things that need to be addressed, or maybe you recognize past traumas and you kind of call them out on it, it obviously shows the genuine nature or the disingenuous nature of what they’re wanting out of the relationship. And it’s definitely been a journey for me.
I enjoy being in a meaningful relationship much more at this age than I would probably have appreciated at a younger age. And obviously, being married before for 10 years and being divorced now since 2009, have had some instances where I’ve flirted with the idea of marriage again, even to a proposal, but it just didn’t work out… So, I think a lot of people are searching for more substance than what I think the dating pool is providing right now. I think a lot of people are guarded. Not many men or women wanna be truly vulnerable with who they truly are. And I think that that’s one of the most exciting things that I take away from this journey on Kings Court is that I was literally being my authentic self.
QG: What did you learn about yourself by going through this process?
TB: The first thing I learned is that there’s nothing wrong with me. People call me crazy sometimes because of how I am. I’m not a one-dimensional person; I’m much deeper than a lot of people would imagine. And the thing I think I’ve learned most about myself is that I am coachable, especially when I have respect for the individuals who are trying to give me advice. So when Holly and Rodney would suggest certain things with me, when I would ask them about certain people or interactions that I was having on the show, they would give me very solid advice.
I also learned that I can be very coachy sometimes. And when I say that, I mean because I’m a get-it-done type of person and get-right-to-it type of person. And it’s not that I don’t like confrontation. I just don’t like meaningless conversation that doesn’t lead to a conclusion that’s suitable for both parties. And I’ve never been able to bite my tongue when it comes to noticing something or seeing something that just seems off or is off.
And sometimes, as we saw in this last episode, it will come up just simply because it’s on my mind, but it doesn’t have to be a sticking point. It’s just something that I feel like we can grow from, we can have a conversation about, and ultimately, we don’t have to agree on a certain issue, but at least we are open enough to talk about it and respectfully agree or disagree and grow.
QG: What did you learn about women through this process?
TB: I definitely don’t want to convolute or compare women as a whole based on this experience. I think that we had some very solid women on this show that brought different things to the table, and they had different values and what they were looking for as well.
I think the thing I learned from this show and probably took away from it the most is that, like many men, especially Black men, women don’t like accountability sometimes. And I don’t think they realize sometimes that us opening up about something and being vulnerable about something is actually a really difficult thing to do for a lot of men simply because we don’t want things weaponized against us and we don’t want to be deemed weak because we’re expressing ourselves.
I think that also, if you watch the show in its entirety, different women are dealing with different traumas, just like different men are dealing with different traumas. And those traumas come from childhood upbringing, not having a father, to having a father who passed away, or whatever it may be. But it’s being able to communicate those things and not let the emotion of the feeling kind of overtake the conversation to a point where there’s no growth, there’s no opportunity to hear each other out.
QG: One thing that stood out while watching the show was how quickly some women claimed ownership of the Kings. How did you navigate that?
TB: To be totally honest and transparent, it’s very frustrating. It’s one of these things where women realize that you were coming on a show with other women who were looking to be chosen by one of three celebrity men. And in a very short matter of weeks, and with some of them not even there the entirety of the process, to be getting jealous or to be in your feelings about them interacting with another person on the show. To me, you [the contestants] didn’t come in here understanding that this is part of our process.
This is the only venue and platform that we will ever have the opportunity to date somebody or date multiple people in each other’s faces, and it’d be okay. And the real key to the whole thing is, for me, was to see who I genuinely had a connection with and why.
I wasn’t shy about saying, like, “Hey, if you still have an interest in having children, you might want to talk to Carlos and Tyson because I’m not having any more children.” But to then get rejected by one of the other two guys and then try to come over to me, it’s like, “Well, I wasn’t your first choice and you weren’t my first choice for obvious reasons.” Not because you’re not beautiful, not because you’re not smart, but because you still potentially want to have children. I don’t even want to be put in a question of would I be willing to reverse my vasectomy.
So, I’d rather you go to one of the other guys or find your love outside of this because I don’t want anybody to have any regrets for going on this journey with me and actually falling in love with me and then me doing essentially the same, only to turn around and be like, “Well, I know I said this a few months ago, but I really want to try to see if we can have a child.” I just didn’t want to set myself up for that.
That was a very frustrating aspect of the show. When women had this entitlement, and because you say I’m your husband now, all of a sudden, I gotta be acting as if I’m your husband. No woman, that’s not how it works here. It works because a man chooses a wife, not vice versa.
The season finale of Kings Court airs on Bravo this Sunday, September 14, at 9 pm ET.
Photo Credit: Derek White/Bravo
