Karrine Steffans Husband: Darius McCrary, Columbus Short, And The Truth

When people search for “Karrine Steffans husband,” they usually expect a simple answer and end up in a maze instead. That’s because Karrine Steffans—now going by her legal name Elisabeth Ovesen—has had one clearly documented legal husband, one very public “husband” whose marriage to her was never really valid, and a long list of famous partners she wrote about in detail. Untangling all of that is the only way to see what’s real and what’s just internet confusion.

Who Karrine Steffans Is And Why People Care

Before you get to the husbands, you have to understand why her relationships get so much attention at all.

Karrine Steffans was born in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1978. She moved to the mainland United States as a child and has spoken openly about a difficult upbringing marked by abuse and instability. As a young adult she started working as an exotic dancer, which led to her being cast in hip-hop music videos in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

As a “video vixen,” she appeared in videos for artists like Jay-Z, LL Cool J and others, and took small film roles, including a part in the 2001 movie A Man Apart with Vin Diesel.

In 2005, she flipped that experience into a publishing phenomenon with Confessions of a Video Vixen, a memoir that detailed her relationships with rappers and athletes in graphic, unfiltered terms. The book became a bestseller, spawned follow-ups like The Vixen Diaries and The Vixen Manual, and made her both notorious and in-demand as a commentator on hip-hop, sexuality and power.

In recent years, she’s shifted toward using the name Elisabeth Ovesen, writing essays, hosting discussions, and repositioning herself less as “Video Vixen Karrine” and more as an author and speaker on relationships and trauma.

All of that is the backdrop to the big question: who, exactly, counts as “Karrine Steffans’ husband”?

The One Fully Confirmed Legal Husband: Darius McCrary

The first and clearest answer is Darius McCrary.

McCrary is an actor best known for playing Eddie Winslow on the classic sitcom Family Matters, a role he held throughout the show’s run from 1989 to 1998. He later worked steadily in TV and film, with credits including a voice role in Michael Bay’s Transformers and appearances on series like The Young and the Restless.

Karrine and Darius married in 2009 after a period of dating. Their relationship, however, was anything but smooth. Court documents and interviews from both sides painted a picture of a volatile marriage. Steffans accused McCrary of physical and emotional abuse; he denied those claims and portrayed her as unstable and manipulative.

The divorce was finalized around 2011, ending a brief but highly dramatic marriage. They did not have children together. Steffans’ only son is from a previous relationship with rapper Kool G Rap, a connection she has also described as abusive and controlling.

Whatever else is debated about her love life, this part is straightforward: Darius McCrary is the best-documented, fully legal “Karrine Steffans husband.”

The Columbus Short Situation: A “Husband” Who Wasn’t

Things get murkier when you talk about Columbus Short.

Short is an actor and choreographer known for films like Stomp the Yard and for playing Harrison Wright on Scandal. He’s also been in the headlines for legal issues and turbulent relationships.

In early 2016, Karrine Steffans began publicly referring to Columbus Short as her husband. She posted a supposed marriage license on social media and spoke as if the two were legally married, using “Mrs. Short” language and calling him her “husband” in interviews and online.

But there was a problem: Short was still in the process of divorcing his previous wife, Tuere Short. Reports at the time indicated that his divorce was not yet finalized when he and Steffans claimed to have married.

In later statements, Columbus Short insisted they were never truly married in a legal sense, despite the public performance of a marriage. If he was still legally married to someone else at the time, any “marriage” to Steffans would have been invalid on paper, regardless of what they called each other in private or online.

The relationship collapsed quickly amid accusations in both directions and a restraining order. By the end of 2016, they were no longer together, and the brief period in which she presented him as “husband” had turned into yet another messy chapter in a very public personal life.

So was Columbus Short “karrine steffans husband”? In her words at the time, yes. In strictly legal terms, almost certainly not.

Other Relationships That Get Pulled Into The “Husband” Myth

Part of the confusion around “karrine steffans husband” comes from the way her dating history has been talked about—and the way she has written about it herself.

Before she ever married Darius McCrary, Steffans was in a long-term and deeply troubled relationship with rapper Kool G Rap, the father of her son. In her books, she describes severe abuse, control and financial instability during that period.

In Confessions of a Video Vixen and later titles, she names or heavily implies relationships with a roster of rappers, athletes and entertainers—Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Bow Wow, Bobby Brown and others—detailing affairs that overlapped, on and off connections, and situations in which she was technically in one relationship while still entangled with someone else.

Over time, readers and gossip blogs blurred the line between “boyfriend,” “affair,” “partner” and “husband,” sometimes describing men as husbands simply because they were prominent in her personal narrative. Add in her own later comments about having been “married multiple times,” and it becomes easy for the internet to inflate the number.

But when you filter it down to what’s legally documented, you’re mostly left with one confirmed husband and one disputed “marriage” that never fully counted on paper.

Is Karrine Steffans Married Now?

Today, Karrine Steffans primarily uses the name Elisabeth Ovesen in her public work. She has shifted from being known mainly as a “video vixen” to positioning herself as a writer, speaker and consultant around relationships, sexuality and mental health.

Recent coverage suggests she is not currently married. In 2022 she publicly announced a pregnancy under the name Elisabeth Ovesen, describing herself as a single, expectant mother and not naming any husband or co-parent in a marital context.

Most up-to-date profiles frame her as single, focusing more on her rebranding, her discussions of trauma, and her commentary on power dynamics than on any current romantic partner.

What “Husband” Means In Her Story

When you listen to Karrine Steffans talk about her relationships—whether on the page or in interviews—“husband” is just one label in a much bigger story about power, survival and reinvention.

She often frames her marriages and relationships as part of a journey: from a traumatized, exploited young woman to someone who learned, sometimes painfully, how to assert boundaries and claim agency over her own narrative. Her books don’t just list famous names for shock value; they layer those names into a story about how fame, money and misogyny intersect in the entertainment world, and how a woman can be both complicit and victimized at the same time.

In more recent years, she’s leaned into conversations about mental health, therapy and healing, moving away from pure “tell-all” mode and toward something more reflective. The husbands, exes and almost-husbands are still there in the background, but they’re not the whole picture.