The spotlight has shifted from TikTok star Addison Rae to her father.
Monty Lopez made headlines in July 2022 when Vidak For Congress exclusively revealed his alleged five-month affair with a 25-year-old woman named Renée Ash.
“Unfortunately, he misled me…he lied to me,” Ash told us, claiming that Lopez told her his marriage to Sheri Nicole Easterling was over when it wasn’t.
“He told me we would be together and have babies together,” she claimed. “He told me a story about his marriage that convinced me that they had split up and were divorcing.”
Shortly after our report, Easterling – who shares daughter Rae, 21, as well as sons Enzo, 14, and Lucas, 8, with Lopez – took to Instagram to share how “challenging and overwhelming” her marital woes were.
“My greatest concern is – and always will be – my children and their fragile hearts and minds. I will always do my best to protect them,” she wrote in part.
Here are five things you should know about Lopez.
Lopez and Easterling have been married twice
Lopez, 46, and Easterling, 42, first tied the knot in 2004 after giving birth to Rae in 2000. Rae took her mother’s maiden name at birth, most likely because her parents were not yet married. They divorced years later, but eventually remarried in 2017.
Rae told Seventeen in 2020 that her parents often separated during her childhood.
He was born and raised in Louisiana
Lopez was born and raised in Louisiana with his brother Don. They both attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where Monty studied English language and literature/letters, according to his LinkedIn.
Lopez and Easterling initially raised their three children in Lafayette, La., until they all packed up and moved to Los Angeles to support Rae’s thriving TikTok career in early 2020.
He worked in real estate for entertainment
While he may now be known as a TikTok dad, from 2007 Lopez worked as a general manager for several real estate companies, according to his LinkedIn.
In January 2020, Monty signed as an actor with entertainment agency William Morris Endeavour. He also followed in his daughter’s footsteps with his own TikTok account, which has amassed 5.4 million followers and 114 million “likes”. However, his wife, Easterling, has nearly triple those numbers, with 13.9 million followers and 322 million “likes”.
He calls himself the Kris Jenner of TikTok
In April 2022, Lopez and Ben Ganz of VEGO Pictures launched the TikTok agency BAM Social, which “helps brands reach their target audience by creating high production value TikToks with curated content,” according to the website.
“Kris Jenner is to The Kardashians on Instagram as Monty Lopez is to The Rae Family on TikTok,” Lopez’s bio reads on the site.
He enjoys the perks of being Rae’s father
Lopez’s Instagram feed, which contains very few photos of Easterling, showcases his daughter’s many accomplishments, along with the celebrities he’s met along the way.
He has posted photos with Pete Davidson, Paris Hilton, Miranda Cosgrove, Mario Lopez, Jake and Logan Paul and many others.
Lopez has also given fans an inside look at Rae’s 2022 Met Gala performance, her “He’s All That” movie premiere, and her interviews on several late night talk shows.
But Lopez has left two followers lately, as Rae and Easterling have both unfollowed him amid the cheating allegations. Easterling also removed “woman” from her Instagram bio, while Lopez still has “man” in his.