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Addison Rae’s father, Monty Lopez, says he’s a free man.
Speaking with Page Six exclusively via Zoom, the 46-year-old claims he divorced wife Sheri Easterling “a couple months ago.”
“Our divorce is finalized. What I can do from here on out, I can move forward,” Lopez tells us in a joint interview with girlfriend Renée Ash from his mother’s house in his hometown of Lafayette.
“In Louisiana, it’s real easy, it’s a lot different. You have to figure, we’ve been separated for over two years now,” he further claims.
“When you go in front of the court system over here and you say, ‘Hey, we’ve been separated for over two years, we’ve been living apart for a year and and a half,’ we’ve done our due diligence.”
Lopez alleges he has found closure with Easterling, 43, whom he remarried in 2017 after taking several breaks before.
“There’s nothing else that needs to be done,” he continues. “We go in front of a judge, I sign it, she signs and then we’re on to the next step.”
A clerk confirmed to Page Six that a sealed case filed between the exes exists in the Lafayette Parrish court system. Meanwhile, Easterling has not responded to our multiple requests for comment.
Lopez — who, in addition to TikTok icon Rae, 22, shares sons Enzo, 15, and Lucas, 9, with Easterling — says they initially kept their separation quiet to protect the public’s “concept” of their famous family.
The dad of three, who lives in Los Angeles, claims he met Ash more than a year into his separation from Easterling, who resides in Louisiana with her sons.
Lopez and Ash quickly developed a friendship that blossomed into something more — but then wilted this summer after the 26-year-old influencer felt Lopez “lied” about the state of his marriage and “misled” her into an affair.
The pair reconciled earlier this month after Lopez begged Ash’s mother and close pals to help him reestablish communication with the brunette beauty.
“Honestly, I just don’t want to miss an opportunity with someone that I really care about,” he says, acknowledging their revived romance.
“So, I’m excited that we’re talking again, I’m excited we’re talking about moving in together, I’m excited … to see the next step in this relationship.”
Ash — who clarifies that she and Lopez are merely “trying” cohabitation in LA — tells Page Six that her man wants to get engaged, but she hopes to at least meet his immediate family before accepting a proposal.
“We’re taking things slow,” she notes. “I would like to meet Sheri before meeting the kids, just so she’s comfortable.”
Lopez points out, however, that he and Easterling don’t discuss his relationship with Ash.
“It’s not something we talk about … we’re talking about our children, what our kids have to do, what’s coming up,” he says of their co-parenting dynamic, adding that he travels to Louisiana the second week of every month to take care of his boys.
“I’m not asking her about relationships, which I’m sure she’s been in a few,” Lopez elaborates. “And she doesn’t ask me what I’m doing.”
For her part, Ash says she initially reached out to Easterling when she and Lopez split in July, but the latter woman wasn’t ready to talk.
“No bad blood on my part with her at all — at all,” Ash says. “When we were broken up, I actually reached out and was like, ‘I understand if you never want to talk to me, but we could be a source of comfort or just be there for each other.’
“She didn’t answer me because she might not want to hear from me.”
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Easterling was seemingly preoccupied. She briefly “dated” rapper Yung Gravy in August, though an insider told Page Six it was nothing more than a “PR relationship” orchestrated for “viral bait.”
“I thought it was silly, but that’s just me. If she’s happy, let her be happy,” Lopez says of Easterling, who appears to be single today.
As Page Six exclusively reported in August, Rae was “mortified” by both her mom and dad’s headline-making relationships.
“Addison has seen her parents go through a lot of ups and downs over the years, but everything going on right now has been particularly overwhelming for her,” a source told us at the time.
Rae notably unfollowed Lopez and Easterling on Instagram this summer, but has since re-followed her mom. Lopez still isn’t among the 342 people followed by the “Obsessed” singer, but he claims he has a “great” relationship with his eldest child.
“We’re good, man. It’s my daughter. I talked to her last week,” he says. “She’s open-minded. My boys, they’re still young whereas Addison, she’s 22. She’s been through a lot more than the 15-year-old and the 9-year-old.”
Lopez claims that Rae is “not bothered” by his intergenerational romance with Ash, who is nearly 21 years his junior.
“She was never bothered with it,” he insists. “By the time we talked about it, whenever I guess the s—t was hitting the fan, you know, we had already not lived in the same house for almost a year and a half.”
After Easterling, Ash hopes she is next introduced to Rae. “I think oldest to youngest is the best way to go,” she says of one day getting to know her boyfriend’s kids.
The bombshell — who currently has “baby fever” and “would like to be a mother one day” — says she is impressed with Lopez’s commitment to fatherhood.
“It was just his son’s [Enzo] birthday so before I [came to Louisiana]. He spent time with [his sons],” she notes. “He took them to school the other day, he picked them up … He’s a good dad.”
Ash also considers Lopez a “good person” overall. “He has a really good heart when he shows it,” she gushes. “I just feel safe with him.”
Lopez is equally smitten with the podcast host and aspiring philanthropist, whom he calls his “queen.”
“[She’s] a fun-loving person who’s genuine and caring and really just looks out for others more than she looks out for herself which is huge,” he says. “I like a lot of the things she’s getting involved with I like how she’s doing things independently which makes her, to me, a strong woman.”
And Ash is the only woman Lopez has had his eye on for weeks, he declares.
Many social media users speculated that Lopez was unhappy without Easterling in his life after he shared a series of cryptic TikTok videos months ago.
In one post shared in October, Lopez — who boasts more than five million followers on the app — is seen shirtless and leaning over a table decorated with red roses as a voiceover shouts, “That’s not fair!”
He wrote in his caption, “I miss you! You know it! #lonely #miserable #waiting #so.”
“A lot of people thought I was posting it about my ex-wife. But I was really posting it for her,” he says of Ash. “And it really made it unclear because even the press was taking it as saying I was heartbroken over Sheri when really I was just heartbroken over Renée.”
Ash tells Page Six that she wasn’t pining for Lopez — until she finally agreed to meet up with him in person this month. (After a string of secret breakups and makeups, this marks their fourth run as a couple.)
“We got back to how we used to hang out and we have a lot of fun together,” she says.
“There’s very few people I can sit and literally do nothing with and have the time of my life and [Lopez] is one of them. I can’t reiterate enough, you should be with somebody who’s your friend first.”
