Terrence Duckett was married to actress Jasmine Guy from 1998 to 2008. Court filings from the divorce, and a child support case four years later, account for most of what has been reported about him.
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Fast facts
- Full name: Terrence Mitchell Duckett
- Known for: Marriage to actress Jasmine Guy, 1998 to 2008
- Daughter: Imani Guy Duckett, born March 28, 1999
- Current work: Chief strategy officer at Tickety, a ticketing technology company, since September 2023
- Based in: Los Angeles
The Marriage and the 2008 Divorce
Guy had finished six seasons as Whitley Gilbert on A Different World by the time the two met around 1997, while she was touring in a stage production of Chicago. They married in August the following year, and their daughter, Imani Guy Duckett, was born on March 28, 1999.
Guy filed for divorce on April 3, 2008. Her representative confirmed the filing to TMZ days later. After ten years of marriage, the couple were splitting over what the court papers called irreconcilable differences.
Her filing listed her wedding ring, personal artwork, and her production company among the property she claimed as her own. Duckett asked the court for joint custody of their nine-year-old daughter. Guy was granted primary custody, and she and Imani moved to Atlanta, where Guy had grown up.
What Jasmine Guy Said That Summer
Three months after filing, Guy gave an interview to Essence that addressed the divorce directly. Asked how she was holding up, she said:
“I’m as good as I can be.”
She credited a strong support system and said she and Duckett both wanted the same thing for Imani. That is a calmer account than the one that followed four years later, once child support became part of the story. The full 2008 interview is on Essence’s site.
The Bankruptcy and the Child Support Case
In September 2009, Guy filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy over back taxes the couple had built up while married. Court filings showed Guy owing $123,503.64 and Duckett owing $94,354.71.
Three years later, a separate financial dispute became public. TMZ reported in September 2012 that Guy had returned to Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Duckett of falling behind on the $1,469 a month he owed in child support for their then-thirteen-year-old daughter. He had paid nothing since May 2010, according to the filing, and the unpaid total had reached $39,663.
Guy asked the court to hold him in contempt, which would have allowed her to garnish his wages or go after his assets. A hearing set for August 2012 was called off because she had not been able to serve him with the paperwork. Her attorney at the time, Lisa West, told TMZ that “both parents have the financial responsibility of rearing a child,” and that Guy had continued to meet hers. BET covered the filing that same week.
His Career Since
Terrence Duckett studied at the University of Iowa and has spent his career in advertising, sales, and technology, based in the Los Angeles area:
- Soda & Lime, a Hollywood advertising agency whose clients have included Fox, NBC, and the Los Angeles Kings: business development, starting around 2015
- UgMO Technologies: independent sales consultant, from 2019 to early 2020
- OnPacePlus, a healthcare technology company: chief strategy officer, since August 2020
- Tickety, a ticketing technology company: business advisor from September 2022, then chief strategy officer from September 2023
What Has Never Been Made Public
Duckett has not spoken publicly about the marriage or either court case. He has given no interviews, and his date of birth, age, and hometown have never been confirmed in published reporting. Nothing about his personal life since the divorce has been reported either.
Imani Guy Duckett’s Own Path
Imani Guy Duckett has built a public life of her own. She trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, made her stage debut in a 2016 production of Serial Black Face, and played a young version of her mother in the 2014 documentary series Unsung Hollywood. She appeared in the 2020 television movie Open and has continued acting and making visual art since.
In December 2021, while promoting the Amazon series Harlem, Guy spoke about that period on the Tamron Hall Show. She said raising Imani largely on her own during those years had been hard.
