Eva Longoria is one of the most loved American actresses. After portraying various roles, Eva gained popularity for her role as ‘Gabrielle Solis’ on the series, Desperate Housewives. With films like The Sentinel, Over Her Dead Body, For Greater Glory, Frontera, Lowriders and many others, Eva has garnered a huge fanbase. Though Eva’s professional life was always on the rise, her marriage to basketball player, Tony Parker broke into a huge scandal.
Eva Longoria and Tony Parker’s affair and marriage
Eva Longoria met the French NBA star for the first time in November 2004 when she went to watch a game in which he played. Longoria visited the San Antonio Spurs locker room after a game with her father and saw Parker. While it was love at first sight, Eva described the spark as ‘lust at first sight’. Soon rumours of a romantic relationship surfaced.
Though Eva was seven years older than Tony Parker, they were very much in love with each other. After dating for a few years, Tony proposed to Eva with a five-carat diamond ring. The couple had a spectacular wedding on July 7, 2007. They first had a legal wedding in a small civil ceremony, which was followed by exchanging vows in a religious ceremony. The couple later hosted a lavish reception at the 17th-century French castle.
Eva Longoria caught Tony Parker cheating on her with his teammate’s wife
After three years, Eva and Tony’s wedding came crashing down when she caught him sexting. Eva found hundreds of text messages that Tony had sent to another woman. The woman with whom Tony was exchanging texts was identified as Erin Barry, the wife of Tony’s former San Antonio Spurs teammate, Brent Barry.
But while Erin and Tony talked, flirted, and exchanged sexts, it seems likely the affair never got physical. However, the breach of trust broke the marriage forever. Eva’s good friend, the presenter, Mario Lopez, told the media, “She’s devastated, she wants us all to know that. But she’s strong.”
Tony Parker had cheated on Eva Longoria before the sexting scandal
Mario Lopez also revealed that Tony had cheated on Eva earlier as well. Lopez revealed that Tony had maintained inappropriate contact with other women on social media and had also been involved with a couple of women. However, despite the cheating allegations, Eva filed for divorce and cited standard “irreconcilable differences” as the reason behind the split. The couple’s divorce was finalised in 2011.
The divorce devastated Eva Longoria, who never saw it coming. Eva and Tony were the PDA type couple who never shied away from expressing their love for each other. But after the divorce, Eva felt she was stripped of her identity. Speaking to Amanda de Cadenet on her show, Eva shared:
“I was with him eight years, which is how long I’ve been on the show. Which is how long I’ve had my success. Which is how long I’ve built my wealth. It signified so much, this life with him. So when we got divorced I felt like I got stripped of my identity and who I was. Kind of, “OK, wait. What does this mean for me? And how am I going to do this?’ And I had to really realize that they weren’t tied together.”
Eva Longoria had mental health issues after her divorce from Tony Parker
When the news of Eva Longoria’s divorce from Tony Parker surfaced, people couldn’t believe it. It was definitely one of the most high-profile divorces of the year. However, it had a huge impact on the actresses’ mental health, who just couldn’t believe something like this happened to them. In an interview, Eva revealed her mental health struggle and shared:
“I was not eating. I was depressed. I was sad. My diet was coffee. People kept saying, ’You look amazing. Divorce agrees with you.’ And I was like, ’I don’t feel good. I have no energy.’ I didn’t know I was depressed.”
Eva Longoria revealed why she never had any bitterness towards Tony Parker despite the cheating
While everyone expected a highly volatile drama during Eva and Tony’s divorce proceedings, nothing like that happened. The two divorced amicably, despite Eva being crushed and heartbroken. She never hated or tried to destroy Tony’s reputation.
After her divorce, during an interview, when she was asked why she was never bitter towards Tony, Eva shared that she only wanted to hold on to the good memories. Speaking about the same, she said:
“Our mantra was, ‘Divorce is not an option.’ We always would kid about that— I’ll kill him before I divorce him. So many people want me to hate him and destroy him, but I don’t want to. I want him to be happy. He’s not a bad person. I do believe in forgiving and forgetting. There was a reason we were together. I just want to hold on to the good times.”
Eva Longoria and Tony Parker’s current marital status
Following her divorce from Tony, Eva married Mexican businessman Jose Baston in 2016, and the couple was blessed with a son, Santiago, in 2018. On the other hand, Tony married French journalist Axelle Francine in 2014. The couple shares sons Josh and Liam. However, in 2020, Parker and Axelle split.
Did you know about the reason behind Eva Longoria and Tony Parker’s high-profile divorce?
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