The comedian says their experiences in therapy have inspired his new show, 'Lopez vs. Lopez.'
George Lopez is owning up to his mistakes and putting in the time with his 26-year-old daughter, Mayan Lopez. The father-daughter duo are currently co-starring in the new NBC comedy Lopez vs. Lopez, which was loosely inspired by the struggles in their own complicated relationship.
"I was divorced and then Mayan and I didn't talk for a long time," the 61-year-old comedian recalled on Wednesday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "She went on TikTok to respond to a video that someone made attacking me. It was a video of her twerking upside-down. I realized I wasn't the best dad, but when your kid's twerking upside-down, you've got some real f**king problems. I didn't realize it was this serious."
George said the moment caused him to take responsibility for his own actions and their damaged relationship.
"You have to be responsible for the trauma that you've caused," he noted. "For the first time in my life I said, 'Yeah, I'm responsible for this and I'm going to spend the rest of my life repairing it.'"
This decision to take responsibility involved going to "trauma therapy" with his daughter. Though he takes his responsibility very seriously, George did joke about one awkward element of the experience.
"If you think therapy is bad, what's worse is the elevator ride down after because it's all heavy stuff," he quipped. "You almost have to stagger it out, like when you dine and dash, somebody goes out the back, somebody goes out the front. Don't go in the same car when you're doing trauma therapy."
George was previously married to Ann Serrano from 1993 to 2011, and Mayan is his only child.
ET's Will Marfuggi recently spoke with the father-daughter team about their once fraught relationship. Mayan said that she didn't communicate with her dad for many years after his divorce from her mom and that they only spoke on and off in later years.
"I think now what really cemented our reconciliation was the pandemic," she told ET. "I think everyone, we just realized what was important in life and what wasn't."
George expressed his desire to reconnect with his daughter through their work.
"I look forward to getting to see her do this and getting to know her from this and getting to kind of resolve some things," he shared.
Lopez vs. Lopez premieres Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
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