Joey Lawrence is detailing his ongoing divorce from estranged wife Samantha Cope, saying their relationship was far from perfect.
“I try to protect my children at all costs and what’s happened lately is not OK,” Lawrence, 48, said during the Friday, August 30, episode of his “Brotherly Love” podcast. “This has been a multifaceted journey these four [and] five years. Actually, there was a lot of pain in that journey despite public perception and what it looks like [on social].”
The Blossom alum started dating Cope, 37, in 2021, one year after he split from high school sweetheart Chandie Yawn-Nelson. Lawrence, who shares two daughters with Yawn-Nelson, and Cope wed in 2022 and welcomed their daughter Dylan, now 19 months, in 2023.
Us Weekly confirmed earlier this month that Cope filed for divorce from Lawrence, requesting sole custody of Dylan. In her court filing, Cope claimed that she would approve of Lawrence staying with Dylan for a maximum of two days once the toddler turns 3.
While Lawrence did not immediately address the divorce, he was subsequently accused of having an affair with Socked in for Christmas costar Melina Alves. Both Lawrence and Alves, 40, denied having a sexual relationship while working on the holiday film.
Lawrence, who noted on Friday’s podcast episode that he prides himself on being a private person, was especially troubled that his three daughters, Charleston, 18, Liberty, 14, and Dylan, would eventually be able to hear and read the false accusations.
“It makes me very sad for my children — and just for my children, not for me,” he told brothers Matthew and Andy Lawrence. “I’ve seen a lot of horrible things that have been said. … There always has to be a balance with these things and right now, there’s a large imbalance.”
While Joey declined to “speak poorly of anyone,” the former child actor wanted “what’s best” for his daughters. (In a Thursday, August 29, Instagram statement, Lawrence claimed that his marriage to Cope broke down because she wouldn’t accept Charleston and Liberty, which she’s since denied.)
“I literally do everything for my family, I always have, and for my daughters especially,” Joey said. “It’s the greatest honor that I have. I’ve been doing this for 43 years.”
Joey further stressed that as a “hopeless romantic,” he craved a relationship but let certain differences slip through the cracks.
“I love the idea of loving someone and I’m definitely a hopeless romantic. I crave that, I strive for that,” the Melissa & Joey actor noted. “Unfortunately, that opens my heart up to wanting to help and be there for people that I’m not capable of [helping] and I try [to do my best but I fall short. I should have never let my personal life these past four years become as public as they have been. That’s not who I am … Dylan doesn’t deserve that.”
According to Joey, he jumped into a relationship with Cope quickly after his divorce from Yawn-Nelson.
“I loved the ideas of relationships so much that, even in a weakened state, fell into a committed relationship [but] I wasn’t ready for that,” he explained. “The ideologies there did not line up and, therefore, I gave away and compromised my own personal beliefs that I had lived by my whole life.”
Joey said he feels that he “was blessed” with the pair’s daughter “in spite of all of that.”