Benét was his mothers maiden name, and he was born in Mobile, Alabama and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is the youngest of five siblings. Benét sang with a Top 100-style group called Gerard in the late 1980s. Benét, his sister Lisa, and his cousin George Nash Jr. formed a band called Benét and released a self-titled album in 1992, but it only sold 100000 copies. Benéts career-building, however, was interrupted by a series of personal tragedies. His father died of cancer. Next his girlfriend Tami Marie Stauff died of injuries suffered in an automobile crash (April 24, 1993) after languishing in a coma for five days. He took a job with United Parcel Service in Milwaukee and eased back into music by producing demo recordings for local artists. From 2001 to 2005, he was married to Halle Berry. They had separated in 2003. He has a daughter, India (with Stauff, born in 1991). The singer is currently engaged to Manuela Testolini.