Read Ted Sarandos' Emotional Foreword to Nicole Avant'sThink You'll Be Happy: 'I'll Meet You There' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Nicole Avant and Ted Sarandos and ‘Think You’ll Be Happy’.Photo:Craig Barritt/Getty, HarperOne

Craig Barritt/Getty, HarperOne

On Dec. 1, 2021,Nicole Avantreceived a phone call that would change her life forever. Her husband, Ted Sarandos, had to break the news that Avant’s 81-year-old mother, philanthropist Jaqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during ahome invasion in Beverly Hills.Nicole Avant channeled her grief into her bestselling 2023 memoir,Think You’ll Be Happy, which recounts that tragic night, as well as how she was able to turn her “pain into purpose,” according to the book’s synopsis. “We can’t banish evil,” Avant writes. “We have to learn to swim through trauma and live for all of those who can’t.”

“This book is an offering for anyone experiencing grief over the loss of someone or even something. My intention in writingThink You’ll Be Happywas to remind readers and listeners that while grief can be heavy and unpleasant, it is part of the human experience that none of us are exempt from and that we can all learn, grow and become better and stronger while navigating and moving through it," Avant says, in a statement shared with PEOPLE.

Read and listen to an excerpt fromThink You’ll Be Happy, below.

Quincy Jones, Jimmy Jam, Clarence Avant, Terry Lewis, and Jacqueline Avant.Lester Cohen/Getty

Lester Cohen/Getty

Listen to Ted Sarandos read from his foreword to ‘Think You’ll Be Happy’

I Will Meet You There

It was just after 2 a.m. I was at a local hotel for an overnight retreat with my board of directors, and the phone rang. I generally turn the ringer off at night, but on this night I did not. The next few hours would be a nightmare, but I was wide awake, and it was all too real. The voice on the other end of the phone was that of my brother-in-law Alex.

“I can’t reach Nicole. My mom has been shot,” he screamed. I’m not sure why, but a sense of calm urgency took over. I knew that Nicole also slept with the phone off — and even more challenging, with earplugs in — but on that night my call to her got through. Bad news is persistent like that. Nicole picked up almost instantly. I told her to get dressed and go to the hospital because her mother had been shot. There were so many questions but no time for any answers. “Just get to the hospital,” I told her, “and I will meet you there.”

Ted, Nicole and Tyler Perry.Courtesy of Nicole Avant

Courtesy of Nicole Avant

When we heard the news from the doctor, I watched Clarence fall into Nicole, and Nicole’s back went stiff as she rose to the challenge in front of her — in front of us. In the next few weeks and months, the busy details of death gave way to grief, and Nicole went with it. She was in conductor mode some days, angry some days, deeply sad others, and I knew that wherever she was, I would meet her there. She had to stop helping me plan my father’s funeral and tend to the planning of her mother’s, neither of which we could have seen coming. We had, in fact, been planning an 80th birthday celebration for my father, Ted senior, which would have been coming in just a few months.

Ted Sarandos and his dad, Ted Sarandos, Sr.Courtesy of Nicole Avant

Nicole’s father, my father-in-law,Clarence Avant, the Black Godfather, came directly from the hospital to live with us. The next few years were like a gift from the universe, cosmic payback for the pain of the few weeks in 2021 that changed all our lives. Clarence was a role model in business and in life. Every meal together was a master class.

At 2:29 a.m. he passed over as gently as one could pray for. I had never seen anyone take their last breath, but I felt oddly prepared. Like Nicole in that hospital waiting room, I knew that this was the time for calm. It took everything I had not to wake Nicole, but she knew exactly where she was, and I met her there.

Nicole and Ted.Courtesy of Nicole Avant

It has been awe-inspiring to watch my wife navigate life and inspire others. She draws on remarkable experiences, faith, good home training and scripture to get her through and inspire others to do the same. Through her work and through this book, Nicole inspires and motivates in ways that still surprise me. Just when I think she has nothing more to give to me, our kids, her family and her friends, she finds a new gear. I try to keep up. I try to find the same comfort she does. I love where it takes her, and I love to meet her there.

source: people.com