George Lopez, 62, shares why he stopped dating
Comedian George Lopez is focusing on family ahead of his 63rd birthday.
During his appearance on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," he explained, "I decided not to date anymore. You know, I'm 62. I'll be 63 soon, so I'm out of that. That relieves a lot of the issues that I had."
He continued, "Now I realize the only person I need to be in love with and have her love me back is my daughter Mayan. So, all my attention would go to her."
Lopez and his daughter, Mayan Lopez, were estranged for several years following his divorce from her mother, Ann Serrano, in 2010.
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"To be a father is a very special thing," he told Hudson. "To have a child as beautiful as any child, but to be estranged from your child is one of the worst things ever. So for the first time in my life, I owned up to all my mistakes, and I’m lucky enough that Mayan took me back into her life."
He noted "A little bit of the show is [about that]," referring to "Lopez vs Lopez," the NBC comedy that stars both father and daughter playing fictional versions of themselves, inspired partially by her TikToks poking fun at him not being in her life.
In 2022, while promoting the show on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Lopez commented on one of the TikToks that led to their reconciliation and eventual show.
"She went on TikTok to respond to a video that someone made attacking me. It was a video of her twerking upside down," he said at the time. "I realized I wasn't the best dad, but when your kid's twerking upside down, you've got some real f-----g problems. I didn't realize it was this serious."
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The clip inspired him to reconnect with Mayan.
"You have to be responsible for the trauma that you've caused," Lopez said.
He continued, "I said, ‘Yeah, I’m responsible for this, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life repairing it.'"
At the time, he revealed he and Mayan were in joint therapy, joking, "If you think therapy is bad, what's worse is the elevator ride down after because it's all heavy stuff."
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Speaking with Hudson, Lopez joked, "I wasn’t planning on making as many mistakes in my life, but I also wasn’t planning on them all being part of my two shows, but I’m happy. If my dysfunction can help someone function, then I’m cool with that."
Reflecting on their separation, he revealed he understood the mistakes he made were in part due to his own lack of a father figure, but that it’s "no excuse."
"When I was growing up, I didn’t have a father, so I had really no figure or anyone to tell me what was right and wrong, so I made a lot of mistakes, as men do," he said.
He continued, "And no excuse, they were all mine. But not until I started to do something that nobody in my family or anybody that I ever really knew did was accept responsibility for a person’s behavior."