Eva Longoria Wondered If She Was "Sexy Enough" After Tony Parker's Cheating Scandal
He exchanged hundreds of texts with the wife of one of his teammates.
Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria and pro basketball player Tony Parker were one of the hottest celebrity couples of the '00s. But, only three years after they got married, their relationship imploded when reports that Parker had cheated on Longoria with the wife of one of his NBA teammates went public. In the years since, Longoria has opened up about how Parker's infidelity made her feel. Even as one of the most glamorous women on TV at the time, she apparently asked herself if the reason he strayed was that she wasn't "sexy enough." Read on to find out more about their short-lived marriage, their public split, and what the now-48-year-old actor learned from it.
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Longoria and Parker filed for divorce in 2010.
In November 2010, People reported that Longoria had filed in Los Angeles to divorce Parker, citing the reason as "irreconcilable differences." As reported by TMZ, Parker filed his own divorce papers in Texas a couple of days later. At the time, he was playing basketball for the San Antonio Spurs. His filing cited "discord or conflict of personalities" that "prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation" as the reason for the split.
Longoria then announced the news on social media. "It is with great sadness that after 7 years together, Tony and I have decided to divorce," she wrote. "We love each other deeply and pray for each other's happiness."
She reportedly found texts to another woman.
People's report about the divorce filing noted that cheating rumors had been circulating in the days leading up to their split. And more would soon come out.
According to Extra, the Desperate Housewives star found hundreds of text messages between Parker and another woman. Longoria's friend, actor and Extra host Mario Lopez, said, "Eva wants everyone to know she's devastated by the rumors of Tony's infidelity. She loved her husband and is heartbroken about their split. But she's strong."
The woman Parker was texting was said to be Erin Barry, the wife of Parker's former teammate Brent Barry. Soon, it was reported that Erin and Brent were also divorcing.
According to OK!, when asked about the cheating claims, Parker said, "This is a difficult time right now for me and Eva. Everything else is our private life."
Erin denied that she had an affair with Parker in a post to her website, as reported by TMZ. "My friendship with Tony Parker had nothing to do with the end of my marriage (which is painful enough without this added drama), and to assume that we had an affair is naïve, ridiculous, and completely misguided," she wrote.
Longoria opened up about confronting Parker.
In a 2012 appearance on The Conversation With Amanda de Cadenet, Longoria said that she confronted Parker about the texts and wanted him to be honest about his reasoning.
"I really wanted to provide a pillow for him to say and express why," Longoria said (via Yahoo!). "Because I really wanted to know why. I'm not going to judge you. I'm not going to be mad in this moment. I'll be mad later… People say, 'What grace!' And it wasn't that. I really wanted to know, and if you genuinely want to get something out of somebody, you have to not judge."
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His actions made her doubt herself.
Longoria went on to say that she learned that Parker's decision was "definitely not about [her]." She said that hearing him out "didn't make [her] feel better, but it helped [her] understand." She added, "I am so secure in who I am. I really am. And I'm not conceited. I just think, 'Wow, OK, that's the life you want to live.'"
However, there were times that she doubted herself. "I had moments of like: 'OK, I'm not sexy enough? I'm not pretty enough? Am I not smart enough?' she said. "Then I immediately stopped. 'No, no, no—don't start doing that.' Because you can get stuck in that cycle and you can carry that on to other things."
Asked what advice she would give her younger self, Longoria replied, "Don't marry that basketball player!"
Parker talked about the divorce, too.
Parker and Longoria finalized their divorce in January 2011. The NBA star reflected on the split four years later during an interview on the French channel Canal+.
"It's not easy to leave a relationship, because when I get involved in something, I want to do well," he said, as reported by Hello!. "The exposure, I could not control. This is the world we live in today; everything is on the internet and on social network sites. I never paid attention to what people said. Hollywood is another world, on another level."
Both Longoria and Parker moved on to new relationships. She married businessman José Bastón in 2016, and they welcomed a son together in 2018. Parker was married to journalist Axelle Francine from 2014 to 2020. They have two sons. The retired basketball star is now in a relationship with tennis player Alizé Lim.
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