Tia Mowry Says She Hid the 'Reality' of Her Marriage to Cory Hardrict Until Now
Tia Mowry says the world never knew the truth about her marriage to ex-husband Cory Hardrict but she’s getting honest in her new reality series.
The actress, 46, is opening up about life after her marriage in her new WeTV reality show My Next Act, which premiered Oct. 4, and says that she hasn’t been presenting an “authentic” picture of her life until now.
“I got tired of not being authentic and living in my truth,” Mowry tells her friends in the first episode of the show during a candid conversation about her 2022 split from Hardrict. “I got tired of showing up at events and people thinking that everything was perfect when it wasn’t. I would go home and feel alone.”
“My persona as a celebrity is kind of like the ‘girl next door,’ the white picket fence,” Mowry adds during a confessional interview during the episode. “But what I didn’t show was the reality of what was really going on in my marriage. Maybe I was trying to live a fantasy.”
Earlier in the episode, Mowry discussed running into Hardrict at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards in March, a moment that was caught on camera before going viral on social media. Though the exes appear to be on good terms after their divorce, Mowry makes it clear that the interact caused her to reflect on their marriage.
“The first thing that came to my mind was ‘Let me just hug him and let him know that it’s gonna be ok,'” she said of the interaction. “And I feel like that has really been my role in this marriage.”
She adds, “Society says that the only reason why we are here on earth is to please a man. To cater to, to serve, to birth their children. But that mindset is toxic because if you believe that, and I did for a minute’ you will stay in a situation where you are unhappy. Life is too short to live like that.”
Mowry and Hardrict married in 2008 after six years of dating. In the episode, Mowry says that her ex-husband was her “first everything” and the only person she’d ever dated.
The exes share a son, Cree, born in 2011, and a daughter, Cairo, born in 2018. In a July 2023 interview, three months after finalizing her divorce, Mowry said that separating from Hardrict was “the best gift” she could give her children.
“A part of my decision was also for them,” she told Hello Beautiful. “For them seeing their mother walk in truth. I feel like it’s a great lesson for them because it was not an easy decision.”
“It was one of the hardest decisions that I had ever had to make in my entire life,” she added. “But if they see that mommy can do it, that mommy, no matter what people say, no matter, even if there’s some sort of doubt, whatever, mommy pushed through. [They can say] my mommy is living and chasing her truth. I want my children to do that.”
Before you go, click here to learn more about celebrities who’ve opened up about dating after divorce.