They were once the definition of a power couple—La La Anthony, the fiery MTV VJ with charisma to spare, and Carmelo Anthony, the NBA phenom lighting up arenas. In 2019, La La publicly praised him for staying solid despite being “blamed,” “overlooked,” and “scapegoated.” But that was then. Now, the two are separated, and La La’s charting a far more personal journey—navigating the emotional and financial realities of single motherhood, co-parenting, and everything else that comes with starting over.
They met in 2003—Carmelo, fresh off being drafted by the Nuggets, and La La, already a star on MTV’s TRL. Introduced by DJ Clue, the two quickly became one of pop culture’s favorite couples. Melo proposed on Christmas Day in 2004, they had their son Kiyan in 2007, and tied the knot in a star-studded New York wedding in 2010. But over the years, the whispers of infidelity grew louder—first against him, then rumors (later debunked) against her. La La stood by him for as long as she could, but after more cheating allegations surfaced, the decade-long marriage ended in 2021.
La La Anthony isn’t just playing a woman trying to reclaim her power on BMF—she’s been living that story in real life too. With Season 4 of the STARZ series dropping today, La La’s character, Markisha Taylor, is stepping into her own, no longer content being someone’s sidepiece or shadow. “She wants to be a boss now,” La La told ESSENCE. “She’s tired of relying on men to get ahead, and she wants to have her independence.” That’s not just a plotline. That’s personal.
“She didn’t want to forget herself anymore,” La La said, reflecting on how her character—and she herself—has evolved. “A lot of times we as women, even being a mom, we lose ourselves. We just become a mom or a wife and forget who we are.” That hit deep. After years of trying to hold it down in a rocky marriage, La La is now channeling all of that pain, growth, and power into her art.
In an episode of SoFi, she opened up about what it felt like to be labeled the “first lady of the NBA.” For someone who once played the sport herself in college, you’d think it’d be flattering, right? Turns out, not quite. “I didn’t really love the term because I knew that I was more than that,” she shared on the podcast. But it is also true that post-divorce, she had to carry a different type of pressure.
In a Richer Lives episode, La La opened up about the emotional and financial weight that’s followed, “You’re on your own at that point… and that puts a different responsibility, sometimes a different amount of pressure,” she said. Even though she’s always been financially independent, she admitted there was a certain comfort in knowing she had someone to fall back on. Now? “I don’t have anyone to call,” she admitted. “There’s pressure there, but I don’t mind it.” And when it comes to love again? That chapter’s still waiting—because marriage is not on her vision board right now.
Is La La Anthony done with marriage?
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