Josie Harris, the 40-year-old former long-term partner of Floyd Mayweather Jr., was found dead in Valencia, California, on Tuesday (Mar. 10) night, her rep confirmed to HollywoodLife. “Unfortunately, the report is true,” the rep revealed. “We will truly miss Josie.” This came after police confirmed that there was a death in Valencia, which TMZ was first to report. “There is a death investigation, but there is no name that the Sheriff’s Department has to release at this time,” the LA County’s Sheriff’s Department said in a statement to HollywoodLife. “On Tuesday, Mar. 10, at approximately 10 pm, the Sheriff’s Department did respond to a death investigation at 25700 Block of Oak Meadow Drive in Valencia, CA, and there was a female adult that was found deceased.”
Josie was mother to three of Floyd’s four children, and their relationship was tumultuous at best, abusive at worst. Floyd served two months in prison over a September 2010 domestic violence incident in which he entered Josie’s Las Vegas home while she slept on the family-room sofa, dragged her out to the floor by her hair, and proceeded to beat her in front of her children. Floyd denied these comments during a sitdown with Katie Couric, according to the Washington Post. It was their eldest son, Koraun, who slipped out of the house to alert a security guard, who then called the police.
“Did I kick, stomp and beat someone? No, that didn’t happen. I look in your face and say, ‘No, that didn’t happen.’ Did I restrain a woman that was on drugs? Yes, I did. So if they say that’s domestic violence, then, you know what? I’m guilty. I’m guilty of restraining someone.”
“I was a battered woman,” Josie said to USA Today in 2014. She claimed that he was physically abusive to her for a total of six times. “I felt embarrassed about saying I was a battered woman. I felt shame. I felt like it was my fault. What did I do? I didn’t understand what a battered woman was at that time. Now I know I was in a very dysfunctional, hostile relationship and a victim of domestic violence.”
Following Floyd’s comments with Katie Couric, in which he alleged she was on drugs, Josie filed a $20 million-dollar defamation lawsuit against Mayweather. She accused him of lying, denied that he had to restrain her, and once again accused him of assaulting her. After years of stalling and slogging through the legal system, a California appeals court ordered that the defamation case could move forward, and according to The Blast, was set for a Dec. 7, 2020 court date.