Viola Davis: I prayed for husband weeks before meeting mine

'The Help' star Viola Davis "prayed" for a husband weeks before she met Julius Tennon.

The 47-year-old 'Beautiful Creatures' actress used to feel like the "loneliest" woman in the world when she was single and thought she would never find happiness.

However, after taking advice from a friend to describe her perfect man, Viola met Julius less than a month later when they worked together on US TV show 'City of Angels' in 2000, and immediately bonded.

Speaking to The New York Post newspaper, Viola recalled: "I was the loneliest woman in the world, and someone said, 'You should just pray for a husband'.

"I said I wanted a big black man from the South who looked like a football player, who already had children, who maybe had been married before. Three and a half weeks later, I met my husband.

"He was the anesthesiologist, Dr. Holly, and I was Nurse Lannett. We were passing blood in a scene. He knew how lonely I was. I was out in LA and I hated it and he said, 'I'll show you around Los Angeles. I'll show you around the Santa Monica pier.' "

Viola and Julius - who was a football player in college and has two sons from a previous marriage - will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary on June 23 this year and the couple describe their marriage as "magical".

Viola gushed: "We've been together 13 years, and from the first day, it was magic."

Julius added: "She's the sweetest woman. It's so great to see her be all of who she is. That's what I love about her."

The couple added a new member to their family when they adopted their two-year-old daughter Genesis in October 2011.