Television personality Alani “La La” Anthony is opening up her hard battle after separating from her ex-husband, Carmelo Anthony.
La La, 46, got engaged to Carmelo, 41, on Christmas Day in 2004 before the celebrity couple were married by professor and author Michael Eric Dyson in 2010.
After splitting in 2017, La La filed for divorce in 2021, citing only irreconcilable differences. She and Carmelo share a son, Kiyan Anthony, born in 2007.
The “BMF” actress was a recent guest on Angie Martinez’s “IRL” podcast, where she explained how hard it was to battle a divorce in the public eye.
“I’m sure there’s moments after everything that happened that you probably didn’t want to get up off the floor,” Martinez said to La La about her marriage coming to an end.
The Brooklyn-born entertainer responded, “Yes, of course. The hardest part of my life and then playing it out publicly. So, then you have that part.”
La La’s breakup from Carmelo became constant fodder for online gossip, especially because the retired New York Knicks star faced cheating accusations.
“They’re watching everything,” La La told Martinez about the public scrutiny her family experienced, before adding, “So then you have to fake smile… And you’re dying inside.”
She continued, “It is incredibly hard, incredibly hard. But what are you going to do? You gotta push forward, like every day a little bit stronger, stronger, stronger until you get past it.”
“There are days where it will be years later where something will hit and it will just hurt and it will remind you of something, because I always say nobody gets married with the thought of getting divorced,” she continued,
Regarding the change, La La said, “I wasn’t prepared. This is not what I thought was going to happen.”
Her honesty about dealing with the emotional fallout from parting ways with her national championship-winning spouse evoked sympathy and support from people on social media.
“I totally can relate,” one woman wrote in the comment section of The Jasmine Brand’s Instagram account in reaction to what La La had to say about divorcing the father of her only child.
A second commenter slammed Carmelo, posting, “He was a public embarrassment to her. I’m glad she finally walked away.” A third wrote, “He had a baby on her, that’s the ultimate betrayal.”
One person read La La’s comments to Martinez differently by suggesting, “She wants Melo back.”
Rumors of Carmelo having a secret daughter, Genesis (born in August 2017), with another woman while he was married to La La contributed to the end of their marriage.
“At that time, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m married. I have a kid.’ I’m kinda cruising and I got this thing figured out, and a whole curveball came my way,” La La admitted on the “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast in 2024 about her understanding of love.
The “Think Like a Man Too” cast member also said, “Now I’m not married and now I’m co-parenting and living in that space and figuring that out, and that’s a day-to-day challenge that comes with that.”
La La mentioning a “curveball” interrupting her marriage was widely assumed to be a subtle reference to Carmelo allegedly fathering Genesis with model Mia Angel Burks. However, La La has never addressed those accusations directly.
After years of silence, the Dever Nuggets player publicly acknowledged his daughter Genesis in a 2023 video announcing his retirement from the NBA, reopening old wounds for those who remembered La La Anthony’s heartbreak.
Carmelo, along with his and La La’s son Kiyan, attended Genesis’ 7th birthday party last August, quietly confirming the family connection.
Melo and La La are working together to co-parent their 18-year-old son. Kiyan announced he will follow in his father’s footsteps by playing basketball on the collegiate level for Syracuse. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard has been training over the summer for his forthcoming freshman season.
“When he left, it’s like I just felt like the energy in the house kind of just left, because my house has always been the fun house. All his friends and music and just fun all the time,” La La explained to Martinez when discussing Kiyan leaving for college.
The former “Power” TV series regular resumed, “Then he just left, and it just got quiet and that’s been really, really hard for me. And I’m not embarrassed to say it, I’m leaning into it so I can understand what that feeling is and try to move past it and get to whatever the other side is, but right now I’m so deep in that feeling.”
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