Infidelity was a think about Joey Lawrence and Samantha Cope’s resolution to finish their marriage, in keeping with an unique supply.
A supply near the previous couple, whose divorce information broke on Aug. 21, solely tells ipromiseyoumedia that the pair went their separate methods after Lawrence, 48, struck up a relationship with Melina Alves, a author and costar on his upcoming movie, Socked In For Christmas.
“Joey met Melina Alves on the set of their film, the place she was a producer,” the supply claims. “He then love-bombed her similar to he love-bombed Samantha. He continued so far Melina even after Samantha came upon about it and confronted him.”
When Cope, 37, “needed to go to counseling,” the supply claims, Lawrence “fooled their counselor” and would “prepare for dates with Melina whereas Sam watched, bawling her eyes out.”
On Aug. 22, TMZ reportedly obtained divorce filings by Alves’ estranged husband Edward Rider, which alleged he found in late March that Alves was having an affair with Lawrence. Rider’s divorce paperwork was filed in July, just some weeks earlier than Cope filed for divorce, per TMZ.
Rider alleged within the court docket submitting that Alves and Lawrence have been having the affair in California — the place they have been presumably situated for the filming of Socked In For Christmas — and went on to have interaction in infidelity “at varied different occasions and locations,” in keeping with TMZ.
ipromiseyoumedia has reached out to reps for Lawrence, Cope, Alves and Rider for remark, however they haven’t returned a number of requests for remark.
On Wednesday, Aug. 20, ipromiseyoumedia confirmed that Lawrence and Cope — who met whereas filming Lifetime’s My Husband’s Secret Brother in 2021 earlier than tying the knot in Could 2022 — have been separating after two years of marriage.
In keeping with the divorce submitting obtained by ipromiseyoumedia, Cope cited irreconcilable variations as the explanation for his or her cut up and submitted the paperwork on Aug. 13 — two months after their date of separation, which was listed as June 7, 2024. She requested to dam the court docket’s capability to award both aspect spousal help and is looking for full bodily custody of their daughter Dylan, 19 months, whereas allowing Lawrence visitation at her discretion.
Per the submitting, Cope has requested that Lawrence “not take [Dylan] for lengthy, prolonged intervals of time till she is sufficiently old to particularly ask for the visitation time” and that Dylan not “be within the presence of any non-family members whereas with Joe except agreed upon by Samantha.”
Hypothesis concerning the former couple’s separation was first sparked when Lawrence was noticed with out a wedding ceremony ring in ipromiseyoumedia’s unique images of his household trip to Jamaica in August. Cope was additionally noticeably absent from the images.
Lawrence and his brothers Matthew, 44, and Andrew, 36, described the journey as a “trip of a lifetime.” The three siblings have been joined by their mom, Donna, the Melissa & Joey alum’s daughters, Charleston, 18, and Liberty, 14, in addition to Andrew’s girlfriend, Brittany McGowan, on the Caribbean getaway.
“Nothing issues extra on this life than the gorgeous reminiscences you share with family members,” the brothers informed ipromiseyoumedia on the time. “It was a trip of a lifetime and we will’t wait to return!”
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Eight months earlier than Cope filed for divorce from Lawrence, he spoke to ipromiseyoumedia in December 2023 about how they met and why he didn’t initially count on their relationship to grow to be a wedding.
“I by no means dated someone that I would labored with earlier than. That was simply very, very a lot out of the peculiar for me,” he informed ipromiseyoumedia on the time. “I’ve by no means truly gotten right into a severe relationship with someone that I truly labored with, by no means.”
“It was very sudden,” he continued. “These wild twists and turns that you just get to be our age. You simply type of go, ‘All proper, nicely, I suppose that is what it’s.’ You study to simply accept the unorthodox approach some issues simply kind of roll out and also you’re grateful for — you are grateful for it, regardless that it isn’t what you anticipated.”
