Why Mario Lopez’s First Marriage Ended
Mario Lopez warmed the heart of teenage girls around the world as A.C. Slater on the popular 90s sitcom, Saved By The Bell. Since then, he’s juggled a career as both an actor and television host.
He’s shared many of his personal family moments through his time as a host, including his life as a father and husband. But prior to Lopez’s current marriage, he was in a longterm relationship with model and actress, Ali Landry. They were married briefly but split after Lopez was unfaithful.
Why Mario Lopez and Ali Landry’s marriage ended
Lopez and Landry met in 1998 at the Miss Teen USA Pagent. They dated for six years before tying the knot in 2004. Just two weeks later, their marriage was annulled and rumors spread that they went their separate ways because of Lopez cheating. Neither of them spoke about what led to their breakup until years later.
Lopez was the first to spill the details about what caused his divorce. In 2011, Us Weekly reported that Lopez admitted to Howard Stern that he was unfaithful during a weekend in Mexico for his bachelor party. The weekend was doomed from the start as Lopez was not forthcoming to Landry about his plans.
“I said I was going to Cabo…to go marlin fishing. Then my cousin surprised me and said ‘No, …we’re going on this whirlwind tour: Cabo, Acapulco, all these places,'” he explained. Instead of telling her of the switch, he kept it a secret. “I figured at that point it was easier to ask for forgiveness [afterward]. It’s my bachelor party, we were going to have a good time. And we went, we had a good time.”
Lopez found himself in a compromising position, complete with alcohol and women. He admitted to Stern that he “messed around” with several of them during the weekend.
Landry and Lopez married in a destination wedding weeks later and things came to a crashing halt when she discovered he cheated and confronted Lopez about it. She told Wendy Williams in a 2012 interview that she taped Lopez’s phone when she became suspicious of his behavior after noticing he received phone calls from other women during their honeymoon.
“I had heard something right before the wedding. He swore that it was not true but I had that feeling in my gut,” she explained. “One of my girlfriends said, ‘If you really want to know, I know how to tap a phone.’ The craziest thing. I thought, ‘I don’t want to tap his phone. This is the man I’ve been with, I should trust him.’”
Landry said that Lopez denied that he was unfaithful despite her evidence and that he never apologized.
Both Mario Lopez and Ali Landry have moved on
Lopez later detailed the fallout from the marriage in his memoir, Just Between Us. He expressed guilt and remorse for his indiscretions but says it ultimately worked out for the best.
“Once I took responsibility for my feelings, acknowledging how I had so mishandled my decisions, lightning hit me with the truth: I wasn’t in love,” he wrote. “The thoughts came streaming in, but it was too late. My misgivings reared their ugly heads and I knew I should have broken things off with her before I strayed.”
After the split, Both Lopez and Landry focused on their careers. Landry landed a role on the hit UPN sitcom, Eve, which ran for three seasons. Lopez took a career pivot when he became a correspondent for Extra.
Lopez began dating Courtney Mazza and they married in Mexico on December 1, 2012. The couple have a daughter, Gia Francesca, 4, and a son, Dominic, who was born in December 2013. They welcomed their third child last year.
Landry also found love again. She married film director, Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, on April 8, 2006, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Landry and Monteverde have three children – daughter Estela Inez and sons Marcelo Alejandro and Valentin Francesco.
