Whatever Happened To Ali Landry?
Model and actress Ali Landry was an 'It Girl' of the late 1990s. She was crowned Miss USA in 1996 after representing her home state of Louisiana in the nationwide pageant. Two years later, she won the role of a lifetime in a Doritos commercial that ended up being featured in the Super Bowl that year.
From there it was a quick step into acting with a recurring role on the hit series Felicity in 2000 and then her longest running gig on the UPN sitcom Eve from 2003 to 2006. While she became a star, she was also in a long-distance relationship with Mario Lopez that ended with an ill-fated marriage and highly public cheating scandal.
She's now remarried, has three kids, and is focused more on her charitable and entrepreneurial efforts than acting, And yet, fans still want to know what the Doritos Girl has been up to. Let's dive into all of the above as we discover just what happened to Ali Landry.
She was not saved by the wedding bells
In April 2004, Ali Landry married her boyfriend of six years, Saved by the Bell star Mario Lopez. It was a small but "gorgeous" affair at a Puerto Vallarta resort — the picture of Hollywood bliss, according to Huffington Post. But two weeks later, the honeymoon was both figuratively and literally over when Landry had the marriage annulled over allegations of infidelity.
Lopez denied everything at the time, but he later admitted to "messing around" with another woman during his bachelor party. "It was spring break ... everybody was hanging out," he told Howard Stern (via Us Weekly). "That was a situation where I was not mature and man enough."
Devastated by the betrayal, Landry didn't speak about the scandal for years until she finally dished the dirt on The Wendy Williams Show in 2012. She revealed that she'd actually been warned about Lopez's cheating before the wedding but that she'd chose to trust him anyway. "That's probably the most dramatic thing that ever happened to me in my life," Landry told Williams. "It was absolutely horrible." But wait — it gets worse!
In 2014, Lopez opened up about his infidelity yet again, writing in his memoir, Just Between Us (via Yahoo! Celebrity), that he "wasn't in love" with Landry at the time of their marriage. Wow. This is not the A.C. Slater we all adored.
When one door closes...
While her failed marriage to Mario Lopez is admittedly one of the most embarrassing scenarios we can imagine, for Ali Landry, it actually sent her down a path that very quickly led her to a wonderful and fulfilling life. A devout catholic (more on that later), Landry turned to her faith to guide her through the aftermath of her breakup from Lopez.
In that same Wendy Williams interview, Landry said that she "got answers" by reading the bible every day, as well as taking a theology class where she met her second husband, director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde.
Landry elaborated on first meeting Monteverde in an interview with Tinseltown Mom, telling the blog that it happened about four to six months after the annulment of her marriage to Lopez. "When something like that happens you don't just pop back up. It was definitely a healing process for me," Landry said. "He was there through a lot of it and so supportive as well. ... We definitely took our time and really got to know each other, who we are, morals, values, what we really wanted in life before there was any kind of commitment."
Landry and Monteverde even chose to remain abstinent until they wed less than two years later in April 2006. After that, however, things progressed quickly.
It's a girl!
Ali Landry and Alejandro Gómez Monteverde welcomed their first daughter, Estela Ines, into the world on July 11, 2007. We can already see the wheels spinning in your head, so we'll spare you the math and tell you that means Landry got pregnant four months after their wedding. Bullseye! For Landry, it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. "I feel it was one of my purposes on this earth," she told InTouch (via People). "Motherhood has taught me to stop and enjoy the moment."
Landry's brood expanded just over four years later when her son, Marcelo Alejandro, came along. Not long after becoming a mom of two, Landry had her parenting system pretty much nailed down. "I'm definitely a disciplinarian mom," she told Us Weekly, describing her adherence to a schedule for the little ones. "I'm pretty strict and I don't let [the kids] sway me very much."
By kiddo number three, Landry's mom game was so strong, she even got Pope Francis to bless the child while he was still in the womb in April 2013. "Words cannot describe the overwhelming sense of gratitude I have for this experience for my baby and for my family," Landry said of her second son's in utero papal pow-wow.
As of this writing, there's no word of a fourth kid, because seriously, how's she gonna top that?
A terrible tragedy
Ali Landry experienced the unimaginable in September 2015 when it was reported that her husband's brother and father were found dead in the Mexican town of Pueblo Viejo. According to USA Today, the two men, Juan Manuel Gómez Fernández and Juan Manuel Gómez Monteverde (above), "suffered brain trauma and had been dead for several days" after being reported kidnapped days earlier.
Mexican authorities captured the alleged murderers less than two months later, according to Fox News. They were six members of a gang that was "linked to at least 20 cases of kidnapping or homicide," and, at the time, were "holding six Central American migrants hostage."
Landry addressed the horrific loss with a remembrance of the men on Instagram. She wrote that her father-in-law "radiated pure joy" and was like her "second Dad." Of her brother-in-law, Landry wrote that he was "a wonderful friend, an amazing husband, and a great father to his two beautiful children." She concluded the post with a message of hope and thanks.
"We are determined not to allow this event to define them or our lives," she wrote. "We want to remember the beauty, the innocence, and the light that they represented, and to continue their legacy and always put family first."
Need a car seat installed? Ali Landry's got you covered.
She's a model. She's an actress. She's a ... certified car seat technician? Yep, Ali Landry is also a child safety expert, a pursuit she turned into a charitable cause with her annual Celebrity Red CARpet Safety Event, which seeks to "drive awareness about child passenger safety."
According to TooFab, Landry adopted car seat safety as her cause after hearing the tragic story of a child dying in a car accident, in part, because of improper car seat installation. "I just thought, 'That could have been me ... and why aren't we talking about his?'" Landry said.
After six years, the annual red carpet awareness event had grown considerably to include many other stars and their children, as well as many other safety-related topics beyond just car seat installation. "Every year I get emotional," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 Landry said. "There was no motive here but just to really start a conversation, and here we are and all these people are learning about car seat safety. It's just, it's been a joy to be a part of this."
Need advice on baby gear? Landry does that, too.
Ali Landry hasn't just turned her mom knowledge into a good cause. She's also used it to start a business. That business is an app called Favored.by, a resource for moms and expecting moms to browse the best baby products on the market, read reviews, and "favor" their own personal picks. Think Pinterest but only for baby stuff, or, as Landry refers to it, "the CliffsNotes version of the best baby products out there" (via TooFab).
In a 2014 interview with TooFab, Landry said her inspiration for Favored.by was the sheer amount of time she spent during her pregnancies trying to seek out real moms' opinions on the best baby products. "[The app] kinda cuts to the chase, saves moms time and money, because who has the time?" Landry said.
In fact, Landry's philanthropic child safety efforts, while inspired by that tragic story, were actually born of the app company's desire to create "an awareness component," which eventually turned into the Red CARpet Safety Event.
So, for anyone keeping count at home, this all adds up to three jobs, three kids, and a full-blown charity that keeps growing every year. We're tired just thinking about Landry's schedule.
She related to Kim K's robbery in a very personal way
In October 2016, Kim Kardashian was bound and held at gunpoint in a harrowing robbery inside her Paris hotel room. According to People, the thieves stole $11 million worth of jewelry from the reality star, who was understandably left shaken by the incident, and even said that she was "a different person" afterwards. So, what's this got to do with Ali Landry? Glad you asked.
The robbery story broke while Landry was guest hosting Hollywood Today Live, and, when it was her turn to offer commentary, she almost immediately choked up. It had only been one year since the devastating kidnapping and homicide of her father-in-law and brother-in-law, and Landry could not help but empathize with how Kardashian's extended family must have felt when they heard news of the robbery. "I'm so happy she's alive, I'm so glad her children weren't with her," Landry said.
"When I hear a story like this, that's really all I can think about is her family," she continued. "What [Kim's husband Kanye West] was feeling, what her mom was feeling — like, it's those moments ... it could have ended there."
Anyone else suddenly feel bad about making jokes in the past at the Kardashians' expense? Yeah, us too. Moving on.
She's not here for Donald Trump's fitness advice
Another massive story that broke during Landry's week of guest hosting Hollywood Today Live was the infamous leaked Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump was caught having so-called "locker room talk" with Billy Bush. The tape led to the revelation of other alleged incidents of misogyny from Trump's past, including his handling of 1996 Miss Universe winner, Alicia Machado, who allegedly gained some weight after winning the crown.
Trump, as the owner of the pageant, inserted himself into the situation via a bizarre press conference in which Machado was made to exercise in front of reporters while Trump discussed, in detail, her weight and his plans to get it back under control before she would hand the crown over to the next year's winner. "We had a choice of termination or do this," Trump said, according to Yahoo. "We wanted to do this."
The fervor over Machado came and went quickly at the time, and was only resurrected by Hillary Clinton decades later during one of her presidential election debates with Trump. But for Landry, the moment struck a chord. Landry said that his positioning himself as the "great white hope" for the Venezuelan Machado was "totally a PR thing," and that her "heart broke" for Machado in that moment of the press conference.
"So that was really hard to live through," Landry said, adding, "I'm happy we're still having that conversation."
Her faith is really important to her
Let's be real here, you don't go out of your way to have the Pope bless your unborn child if your faith isn't important to you. Also, celibacy before marriage? In Hollywood? That's practically unheard of. So, Ali Landry's spiritual bonafides have already been pretty well spelled out here, but it's such an important part of her life, we wanted to make sure we gave it the attention it deserves.
Though she's spoken about her faith at length and in multiple interviews, it was her chat with Tinseltown Mom in which she revealed just how much it guides her. "I think to pull off a successful marriage in the entertainment business is a really hard thing. I don't know how people do it without God in their life," she said. "It helps that we have God that we are accountable to, and that really keeps us on track in our relationship, the choices we make in our career, and the projects that we take on."
While this working mom may not find herself on the sets of movies, TV shows, or photos shoots so often anymore, she seems to have a plan in place to keep her focused on what's really important. We can't wait to see what she does next!