-Tamara’Shanay-
Cousins!
In an one on one interview with Charlamagne Tha God for the Hollywood Reporter , Lala speaks on making one of the hardest decision of her life while also leveling up in her career!
Lala explained that deciding to walk away from her 11 year marriage to NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony was a lot more difficult compared to staying. She said that staying would’ve allowed her to remain comfortable because that’s what she was use to, but leaving amongst the countless rumors was a decision Lala had to make for herself.
“I think that stepping away from that marriage was such an incredibly hard decision for me, but it made me realize there’s nothing I can’t do,” said Lala.
“Staying is easier. Staying is easier. Walking away is harder. Staying in your comfort zone– what you know, your house… your kid is happy cause their parents are together– that’s easier. Walking away on your own and trying to rebuild a life by yourself…”
She continues, “I was with him when he was 19 years old, like that’s all I’ve known. To step away from that and try to build my own life and still keep my sanity and keep things normal for my son who only knew his mom and his dad together– that wasn’t the easier decision, but I had to make a decision for myself. So now it’s like, wow, if I could do that, I could do anything.”
“It’s been a few years now, but there’s still really hard days because this is not the life I thought I was gonna be living right now. When you marry somebody, that’s what you picture your life to be like for the rest of your life. You don’t go into marriage like, “Oh, gonna do this for two or three years. And then I’m done.” This is like your life partner. So, when it doesn’t work out, it’s like, “Oh sh*t. Now what?” And so, I had to figure out what I needed to do then. And I’m still figuring out what I’m doing now.“
When asked how is her and Melo’s relationship at this point in time Lala responded, “Great. Co-parenting, amazing. We want to be a great example to our son. We have open conversations with him. We tell him, “You were made from love.” We’re still a family and we do things together. We go to his games together. We try to keep it as normal as possible.”
“I don’t want my son to look at his parents like they didn’t get along. He’s looking at us as an example. I don’t want him to have dysfunctional relationships. I want him to be better when it comes to that. What makes me the most sad is that I wanted to be a better example to my son than what I saw. And I didn’t necessarily do that. So that makes me sad. It’s not my fault, but I wanted it to be different for him. He got to an age where he was seeing everything and reading everything. Like, “Mom, they’re saying this … My friends at school are asking me …” So we had to navigate through all that. And the fact that I couldn’t necessarily protect him from that, still hurts me, but I try to make up for it in other ways, by just being open with him and still showing him a loving household co-parenting situation.“
She continues in saying, “I never ashamed because I didn’t do anything. That wasn’t my burden to bear. I felt sad that he had to go through that. That I had to go through it publicly and still wear a smile. And, “Damn La, she’s handling as well.” But nobody knows what’s going on once the door closed.”
Lala explains that her current take on love now and hopefully finding love one day is, “ I do hope that I’ll find love again one day. I can’t necessarily say I’m the most confident about it. Sometimes I’m like, maybe it’s just not in the cards for me. Maybe an incredible son and an incredible career is like — that’s for me, you know? And then people are like, “You can’t say that! Words have power.” Ciara over here, one of my best friends, is like “No, you need to pray the exact kind of man you want, you need to pray!” And I do pray. I definitely pray that it will happen, but I’m also at a place where if it doesn’t, then I’m gonna still have fun. I have great friends. I have great family. I’m not lacking. I would love it. But it’s just, it’s slim pickings. It’s hard to trust when you’ve been scarred in a sense. I’m like, “Damn, that really messed me up in a lot of ways,” but I’m in therapy. I’m dealing with my own stuff, and I would love to find love and a companion to do fun stuff with and someone I can rely on.“
In regards to work, Lala has an impactful career spanning over the last two decades and she’s continuously killing it in the television game. From staring in Starz original series “Power” for 6 seasons, joining the cast of Lena Waithe’s hit series “The Chi” and 50 cent’s newest series “BMF”, Lala has quite the busy schedule.
“Always hustling and just continuing to expand. We are in a business where you can never get comfortable or stagnant. Now that I’ve ventured into acting and producing, it’s like a whole new world has opened up. I’ve been blessed to have such an incredible friendship/partnership with 50 Cent, who has opened so many doors for me. I always tell him this — he’s the one person when he says he’s gonna do it, he really does it!
Like, “I’m about to create this show called Power. I’m gonna bring you in for an audition cause I want you to earn it. … BMF, I got something for you. You gotta earn it. Let’s go in there and wow them.” He has really helped me in this second phase of my career. And I’m very grateful to him. A lot of times, it’s like, “Well you didn’t come from this. You were a VJ or a radio person. You don’t really do this.” And it took me really going to acting school, classes, working on these shows — to show people I really do this. And I can really do it to a high level. And it took things like even getting nominated for the NAACP award for my work in The Chi to be like, this is really happening.”