Larsa Pippen is defending her relationship with Malik Beasley, who she insists was separated from estranged wife Montana Yao before they began seeing each other.
“We had spoken about it. It wasn’t a secret. I know a lot of people that are married and exiting,” Pippen said on Saturday’s episode of Hollywood Unlocked With Jason Lee, according to Page Six.
“I’ve played that part. So for me, if you’re not being shady and you’re telling me all your stuff, I’m going to believe you.”
“A lot of people are not happy in their situations and they don’t want to jump ship until they see someone they like,” Pippen explained. “You don’t want to just shake your kids up because you might never meet someone that you actually like. You’re in a state of living in the same place, but not really together.”
Pippen revealed she Googled Beasley prior to dating him and said she found out “they had issues before” she met him. “It had nothing to do with me, so I wasn’t thinking anything about it,” she said. “If you spent a minute Googling their situation, it wasn’t the ideal situation way before me.”
Pippen said she’s going to do a “better job” of keeping her personal life private going forward.
“What’s the point of taking a beating over a guy I had just started talking to?” she asked.
Yao filed for divorce from Beasley in December. They share one son, 23-month-old Makai. Yao previously accused Beasley of cheating on her with Pippen, which Larsa denies.
Last month, Beasley’s attorney told Us Weekly that “Malik looks to put this matter behind him,” regarding his relationship with Yao.
However, Yao’s attorneys told Us Weekly in a statement in January that Beasley’s assessment “omits the fact that Mr. Beasley forgot to inform Montana Yao, his long-time partner and wife, of his plans to leave his family ‘behind.’ Instead, he put Montana and their young son out of the family home while he stayed behind to live there with friends.” They also claimed that Beasley had only contributed $800 toward the care of the couple’s son.
Beasley’s lawyer responded: “It is unfortunate that counsel for Montana Yao has elected to misrepresent facts in the media to seek sympathy, while omitting the fact his client demanded an outrageous and obscene amount of money for not only her, but for her mother, as an apparent bounty for an eight-month marriage. This is a cautionary tale for NBA players, who run great risk of situations like this which we must now mitigate in a court of law.”
Yao’s attorney fired back, saying, “Mr. Beasley’s latest statement is false from beginning to end. There is a ton of information the world, and more importantly the NBA, doesn’t know that will be coming out in the very near future.”
Photo Credit: MEGA; Courtesy of Montana Yao/Instagram
