Chris Rock appears to have found a new romantic chapter. The 61-year-old comedian and actor was photographed on a relaxed daytime outing in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood on March 31, walking alongside a woman identified as Simone Henault. The two were seen strolling side by side through a public park before pausing at a bench to share a kiss, making the nature of their connection fairly clear to anyone paying attention.
Henault is a DJ, creative producer and content strategist with a professional background that also includes work as a wardrobe stylist and producer. The SoHo outing was not their first time being seen together in public. The pair were also spotted the previous month leaving an upscale restaurant in Santa Monica, California, and getting into a car together, suggesting the relationship had been quietly developing for some time before the New York photographs brought it into wider view.
A long road since his marriage ended
Rock was married to Malaak Compton-Rock for two decades, from 1996 to 2016. The former couple share two daughters, Lola Simone Rock and Zahra Savannah Rock, now in their early twenties. The years following his divorce were largely private on the romantic front, though Rock did not entirely avoid the subject when it came up in conversation.
In a television appearance a few years ago, he joked openly about finding himself alone in his fifties, describing the experience with the kind of self-deprecating humor that has always been central to his public persona. He acknowledged that he was not ruling out the possibility of a lasting relationship down the line, but framed it in terms that suggested he was in no particular rush. He also mentioned adjusting to life as an empty nester after both daughters left for college, a shift that brought its own kind of solitude.
Previously linked to Lake Bell
Before Henault entered the picture, Rock had been romantically linked to actress and screenwriter Lake Bell. The two were photographed together on several occasions in Santa Monica, including dinner outings at a popular restaurant in the area. They were also reportedly spotted together at a baseball game around the same time. The connection between Rock and Bell was never publicly confirmed by either party, and it appeared to have run its course quietly.
What the SoHo moment suggests
Public displays of affection from someone as guarded as Rock tend to carry a certain weight. He has spent much of his post-divorce years keeping his personal life relatively close to the chest, which makes a kiss in a Manhattan park something more than a casual footnote. Whether intentional or not, the outing reads as a signal that this particular relationship has moved beyond early-stage uncertainty and into something with enough footing to be lived out in the open.
A comedian who has always kept people watching
Rock has remained one of the most closely followed figures in American comedy for decades, through professional highs, personal transitions and the kind of public moments that tend to follow people at his level of fame. His personal life has always attracted interest, even when he has offered very little to work with.
At 61, with his daughters grown and a career that continues to generate conversation, Rock appears to be entering a new phase on multiple fronts. If the SoHo photographs are any indication, that new phase comes with a little less loneliness than he once joked about.
