The Estefan women support Lili as she opens up about her divorce like never before.
Bienvenidos a Casa Estefan! The first episode of Red Table Talk: The Estefans premiered on Wednesday and delivered an emotional look inside Lili Estefan's public divorce and her ex-husband's cheating scandal.
On the episode, titled "Surviving Divorce," the Emmy award-winning Univision host and nice of Gloria Estefan got candid about being blindsided by ex Lorenzo Lauces' affair and being blackmailed with photos of him with another woman. The pair split in 2018 after 25 years of marriage, and Lili hasn't spoken about their breakup in depth publicly until now.
"I really thought I had a perfect life… I was so wrong and I didn't see it until that moment," Lili began, sharing that she found out about Lorenzo's affair shortly after celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary and after Hurricane Irma hit. After the storm passed, Lorenzo admitted that a paparazzi caught him with another woman, and that photographers were asking for $200,000 for the photos. As a public figure, Lili said felt like she had to stay quiet.
Gloria then shared that Lorenzo had spoken with her about the photos before he told Lili, and that he felt like he no longer was the center of Lili's world. At the time, the paparazzi had gone to several news outlets, including Univision, who knew about Lili's husband's affair before she did.
"When I find out that the paparazzi had caught him with another woman and the pictures were taken to my job, to my colleagues, to the producers of my show, to Univision, my second home for 30 years? I was flipping out," the El Gordo y La Flaca co-host told Gloria and Emily Estefan. "I just felt so humiliated. Privately, then publicly."
"You're the last person to know," Emily shared, with Gloria adding, "She was humiliated."
However, the first to hear about Lorenzo's affair was Gloria's husband, Emilio Estefan, who got a call about the photos. Emilio, who made an appearance at the table, shared that he spoke with Lorenzo and told him to talk to Gloria before he talked to Lili.
When Lorenzo finally spoke with Lili, he suggested that she publicly go out with the story that they were being blackmailed.
"I defended him for hours," she said, and revealing she wanted to present a united front. However, the paparazzi later told Lili that they had more information and that this was not the first time Lorenzo had been with this woman. Before the news hit the air, she was then forced to tell her two children, Lina Teresa, 18, and Lorenzo Jr., 20.
Lili confronted Lorenzo and told him he broke her heart, after which he left their home. She hasn't spoken with him in two years and only communicates with him through their children. Lili has never seen the photos -- but Gloria did.
Lili's daughter also made an appearance on Red Table Talk: The Estefans, sharing her account of her parent's divorce and revealing that the first time she felt like her dad was up to something was when she was 14. When asked if she ever thought about telling her mom, she said no.
"If it wasn't true, first it would've hurt him to be thinking that his daughter's accusing him of something like that," Lina said. "I don't want to start something and it not be true... I didn't want to tell my brother either because I didn't want him to think I was crazy."
It wasn't until their family therapy sessions that Lili heard her daughter's theories and stories. Lili's world was turned upside down.
"The day that the divorce paper became public, I won a Daytime National Emmy," Lili shared. "My personal life was the lowest, it was such a horrible day for me, and in my professional life, it was such a high."
Lili admitted to not wanting a divorce. "I pushed and pushed to get past everything that was going on and it didn't happen," Lili reflected. "Then one day I just woke up and said, 'Lili, it's time to let go. Respira, Inspira. Vive y deja vivir.'"
Lili concluded by sharing that every night she prays that her children meet the Lorenzo that she married. "Because the guy that I married, is not the guy that I divorced," she expressed. "Not for me anymore, but them. They deserve to meet that incredible guy that I married and I can't say anymore than that."
ET's Nischelle Turner spoke with the Estefan women ahead of the premiere, where Lili shared why she decided to talk about her relationship.
"This was the right platform. Let’s start by saying, time has gone by and I’m able to talk about it because at the beginning I was destroyed," she shared. "It's happened to me publicly. I was left behind in the middle of a scandal that I had nothing to do with. So that's why when we sat down with topics, we said, 'You know, this is the first time that you can really talk about it and help other women because so many women are going through the same thing.' My ex, he left and I'm the one who stayed behind picking up the pieces."
"This is what happens when all women that go through the same experience," she continued, adding that while she had talked about it, she got to share new information and get her family's perspective.
In a separate interview with ET, Gloria also pointed out that Lili's fans "had a lot of questions about what happened" between her and Lorenzo, and they wanted to send the message to viewers in the first episode that they were going to get "really honest." "We chose it for the reason that it was so personal," Gloria explained.
New episodes of Red Table Talk: The Estefans are available on Facebook Watch.
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