Lisa Bonet is just… a goal. To live her life, to have the lovers she’s had, to still be cool and present and enjoying herself… we should all be so lucky. Lisa covers the latest issue of PorterEdit Magazine (the online magazine of net-a-porter) and she was just a great choice. I feel like traditional, hard-copy magazines wouldn’t have put Bonet on the cover just to chat about her life, but really – we so rarely hear from her, and this interview was a joy to read. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

She owns five acres in the canyon, and she has a bunch of animals: “That’s Amba and Zion, my wolves. Well, half-wolf, half-Malamute,” she explains, as they come to the fence to greet her. Then we hear a honking sound and Bonet’s face lights up. It’s her auburn donkey, Freya. “Isn’t she beautiful? We’ll go walking later, honey…I know people give Southern California a bad rap, but I love it here. You can create the life you want. [My life here is] quiet, tranquil and, yeah, a bit reclusive. But that’s my Scorpio nature. I already have that loner personality.”

A proud moment as a mom: “One of my proudest moments as a mom was when someone asked Nakoa-Wolf, ‘Well, what is life for?’ and he said, without missing a beat, ‘To protect Mother Earth, of course. But God also wants to play with Mother Earth.’ I just thought: my work is done!”

Being a mixed-race kid in LA: “The world wasn’t ready for what I represented, the merging of these two races. I didn’t always feel welcome – in my mom’s family, in my school. So I sheltered myself by always withholding a bit, because I didn’t always feel safe.” If she could go back, she’d tell herself to love herself more: “Try not to internalize the disdain and hate that was projected onto me.”

Whether the allegations against Bill Cosby tainted her happy years on The Cosby Show: “No, it’s exactly as I remember it,” she says. But did you have a sense that anything was happening? “There was no knowledge on my part about his specific actions, but… There was just energy. And that type of sinister, shadow energy cannot be concealed.” You sensed a darkness? “Always. And if I had anything more to reveal then it would have happened a long time ago. That’s my nature. The truth will set you free.”

On how Cosby derided her and shamed her as a wild teenager: “I don’t need to say, ‘I told you so.’ I just leave all that to karma and justice and what will be.”

Why wasn’t she a bigger star? “I don’t know! I always had one foot in and one foot out of the business, so that’s part of it. But also, it’s slim pickings out there! There aren’t endless opportunities for women of color, you’ve probably noticed.” At the time, Bonet’s love life was unsettled, a vestige from her childhood. “When your primary male figure couldn’t care less to show up, that can become a theme in your life where you’re trying to fill this gap with these different men.”

Meeting Jason Momoa: But in 2004 she met Momoa, 13 years her junior, at a jazz club in LA. “I can’t say it was full-on from the moment we saw each other, but we have been together from the day that we met,” she says. He needed a ride home that night, so Bonet took him, stopping at a café along the way for Guinness and grits. “In that moment, love came and it came big, and he did not run as I think a lot of men do. He basically picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, caveman style!” They’re a picture of happiness now. Lenny and Jason are friends, the kids are all tight, Thanksgiving is a big event at their house – Bonet’s two families getting along famously. “It’s fantastic. It’s full-on family love,” she says.

[From PorterEdit Magazine]

Imagine sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner table and looking around at Lenny Kravitz and Jason Momoa and knowing that at least you did one thing right. As for what she says about Bill Cosby… I’m glad she’s not out here, trying to sugarcoat anything for the sake of television history or anything. If someone else tried to pull this “I was a visionary about Bill Cosby back in the ‘90s,” I might have rolled my eyes. But I believe her: there probably was a sinister vibe and she could feel it. She felt it even more when Cosby publicly shamed her for, you know, just living her life.

Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of PorterEdit.