Dating a professional athlete comes with a distinct set of pressures many WAGs have spoken about. MTV personality and actress La La Anthony described the reality of being married to the Knickstape era cornerstone as involving persistent anxiety and sleepless nights. Reflecting on her 11-year marriage to 10x NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony during an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, La La got candid about the sleepless anxiety that defined her experience as a basketball partner.
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Call Her Daddy reposted a throwback to La La’s 2022 sit-down, roughly 16 months after she filed for divorce. More than a year after filing, Anthony discussed her own experience with infidelity-related anxiety and said that concerns could arise in less obvious NBA markets. La La said that, in her experience, entering a committed relationship or getting a ring did not eliminate stress and could intensify it.
“Oh no, I never slept… I never slept,” La La told host, Alex Cooper when asked about her mindset once her relationship with Melo became official. “It never ends. It never ends.”
While La La said she once worried about notorious road-trip destinations with high-energy nightlife, she said her experience taught her to be cautious about quiet, unsuspecting cities.
“I used to think like certain cities, I would be like, ‘Oh, those are the problem cities.’ Like Miami, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’m definitely not sleeping tonight, or I’m going to figure out a way to get there,'” La La explained. “But here’s what I found out, dear. Be careful with these other cities that you think don’t have as much going on, because those are the ones, guys, where the s— is going down.”
Cooper, who previously dated a professional athlete, chimed in, noting how easy it is to drop one’s guard in markets like Kentucky, only to find a player has established an entire secondary relationship under the radar. “Have you been here before? Have you been here before?” La La laughed, summarizing the unspoken realizations partners face.
Cooper agreed that the “sleep concept” captured the anxiety La La described and said it could lead to sleepless nights.
Despite the tumultuous end to her marriage, La La emphasized that her experience does not define every sports romance, pointing to her close friend Ciara and NFL star Russell Wilson as proof that healthy relationships can thrive in the athletic world.
“I can’t generalize everyone. I’m just talking about what I went through and people I know, but I’m sure there are great relationships,” La La shared. “I mean, my best friend is married to an athlete, and they have – Ciara and Russell – an incredible bond. Something I’ve never seen before. I’m so happy to even witness it because it makes me feel like, oh, wow, that type of love does exist. ‘Cause I didn’t think it did for a long time.”
La La did not explicitly accuse Carmelo Anthony of infidelity in the Call Her Daddy interview, but she has separately said that she never turned a blind eye to cheating and that it contributed to the end of the relationship. She acknowledged that their marriage wasn’t the fairytale it looked like on the outside.
La La Anthony blames New York for end of marriage to Carmelo Anthony
La La’s insights stem from a long, complex history in the spotlight. Her relationship with Carmelo Anthony began in the early 2000s, right after Melo was the third overall pick of the star-studded 2003 draft class. After being introduced by DJ Clue while she was working as an MTV VJ, the couple got engaged in 2004, welcomed their son, Kiyan, in 2007, and officially married in a star-studded 2010 ceremony that was the launch of her Vh1 reality show.
However, Carmelo’s blockbuster trade from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks in February 2011 marked a turning point for their relationship. La La previously noted on Call Her Daddy that relocating to New York brought intense media scrutiny, calling the move “the start of the demise of the marriage.”
Over the years, the relationship faced public tabloid storms, including a 2019 incident where Melo was allegedly cheating on her. He was photographed on a yacht in the South of France with another woman. The allegations were reported around La La’s birthday on June 25.
Melo vehemently denied the allegations via TMZ. He revealed that he was on the yacht with a group of associates for a business retreat. “The only reason I’m addressing this is because this is affecting my family now and you got me out here looking crazy. Usually I won’t address this, but I had to address this,” he said then.
At that point, Melo and La La had briefly separated in 2017 before reconciling. Though they weathered the 2019 incident, they officially filed for divorce in 2021, citing irreconcilable differences.
Today, the former couple maintains a supportive friendship focused on co-parenting their son, Kiyan, who followed his dad’s footsteps to Syracuse.
“We had some great times. We have a beautiful son, Kiyan, who’s amazing,” La La reflected. “It wasn’t all bad. We had great, great times. It ended bad, but we’re still friends, and we co-parent great. Life is just about lessons and going through different phases… that chapter’s over, but it’s never really over when you have a kid with somebody.”