“With great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben said it first, but La La Anthony definitely lived it but with a little twist. In her case, it was more like “great responsibility comes with a whole lotta chaos.” And honestly? You’d never know it. La La made it all look easy. But now, she’s finally spilling a little tea. La La’s opening up about some of the wildest, darkest moments from her Total Request Live days, which will make you respect her hustle even more.
So, as you probably know, La La Anthony kicked off her career in radio at HOT 97.5 down in Atlanta before making moves to co-host at Los Angeles’s 92.3 The Beat. By 2001, she landed at MTV and became a VJ on Total Request Live (TRL) and Direct Effect. And while she did fabulously on both shows, TRL was the real MVP. That show was sort of a cultural reset. As some of the biggest names in music history rolled through those studios. They chopped it up with La La and shared their journey.
But for La La, that spotlight came with a ton of pressure. She had to keep it all together on-screen while hiding the madness happening behind the scenes. No one had a clue what really went down. But now she’s finally letting people in on those untold stories. And one of them specifically is way more surprising than you’d think. On the recent episode of Watch What Happens Live! show one of the wildest stories from her TRL days. As she revealed, “There have been musical artists that have completely drunk and just couldn’t even like do the interview. There’s been throwing up backstage. I have seen all of that. So that’s been really really crazy.”
Drunk celebs, people puking, interviews falling apart, so La La has seen it all, all while keeping it cool for the cameras. And surprisingly, she made it look so easy. But the thing is she loved every second of the show(except for the throwing part). As she later admitted, “And I have had so many memorable moments cause all like the biggest musical stars came to TRL.” This shows that behind every polished, camera-ready moment, there’s a real person holding it together. And for TRL, La La Anthony was that glue.
While TRL gave her career a serious boost, it wasn’t the only life-changing thing happening for La La at the time. She did the show from 2001 to 2003. And around those years, someone unexpected walked into her life quite uninvitedly. And little did she know, the future NBA legend would completely change the course of her life.
La La Anthony reflects on the story behind meeting Carmelo Anthony for the first time
Back in 2003, while La La was making a name as a co-host on MTV’s Total Request Live. Something else was quietly unfolding behind the scenes, which would eventually change her life forever. It all started when a mutual friend decided to play matchmaker between her and Carmelo Anthony.
“I was hosting a show on MTV with DJ Clue at the time,” La La once shared. “He told me, ‘I really want to introduce you to someone who wants to meet you.’ He introduced us, and it started off as a friendship, which slowly evolved into something more.” That “something more” turned into a headline-making relationship. Carmelo Anthony and La La got engaged on Christmas Day in 2004 and tied the knot in 2010. But like many love stories in the public eye, theirs came with ups and downs. They split in 2017, but they got back together soon after. But La La officially filed for divorce in 2021, after years of trying to make it work.
Still, if there’s one priceless gift that came out of their love story, it’s their son, Kiyan Anthony. Now 18, although Kiyan is following in his dad’s footsteps, chasing his own basketball dreams. And through it all, La La’s been his biggest cheerleader. She’s often said there’s nothing in this world she loves more than her son. In her own words, she considers her marriage a “blessing because we have our beautiful son.”
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