Larsa Pippen is not ashamed of her relationship with Marcus Jordan.
“I feel like a lot of people think that we’ve known each other our whole lives, which we have not,” said Larsa on “The Tamron Hall Show,” as she addressed one of the major misconceptions about dating Marcus.
He is 16 years younger than her. The age gap between the two has been a talking point since news of their courtship was confirmed earlier this year. Larsa is 48, and her beau is 32.
She is the ex-wife of NBA great Scottie Pippen, whom she was with for more than 21 years when they divorced in 2018. They have four kids together: Scotty Jr., 22, Preston, 20, Justin, 17, and Sophia, 14. Marcus is the son of Scottie’s former teammate and basketball icon Michael Jordan.
As most sports fans know, Scottie and Michael were an unstoppable force on the court when they both played for the Chicago Bulls. However, that close-knit bond during games was the only time the two men were able to see eye to eye.
Since Michael’s 2021 docuseries “The Last Dance” was released, Scottie has publicly criticized the project as well as detailed the contentious relationship between him and the Jordan Brand founder.
“We’ve been around each other for like the last four years,” explained the “Real Housewives of Miami” personality. She revealed that they met through mutual friends at a party in Los Angeles. The public seems to be hung up on their age gap, but the two lovebirds are unfazed by it.
While Hall acknowledged that men are hardly ever questioned about their younger love interests, she still pressed to know what Larsa and Marcus could possibly have in common. “We have everything in common,” said the social media influencer.
“Well, I don’t — I’ve dated older guys that were a lot older than me. Scottie is 10 years older than me. So I don’t really view age as, you know, you’re mature, you’re not immature. I don’t feel like that determines you’re mature or not. If you can drink at 21, you can go to war at 18, like there’s different circumstances. I feel like age doesn’t really determine level of maturity.”
The talk show host chimed in with, “I think the age for most people, if we’re being honest, that’s secondary. The bigger thing is you are a beautiful woman, and you could date anybody you want.
She asked, “Why would you date Michael Jordan’s son, knowing that it’s been pretty clear that Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan didn’t have this relationship that people thought and certainly don’t have it now.”
“You know that’s, you know I can’t really explain how someone else feels,” Larsa responded. “That’s how Scottie feels, he has a right to how he feels.
“I personally don’t really care about what other people, you know, how — I feel like I like my truth. I’m happy. I feel like we get along; he’s my best friend. It wasn’t like it was planned. I think we were just together a lot with our friends, and it just so happened. It wasn’t, like, something I planned.”
She continued, “You gotta remember, like, I feel like for me, being you know married to someone that was an athlete or whatever, it’s really hard. You get scrutinized a lot. People don’t think you should have a life once you get divorce.”
“They think once you’re divorced you’re done, and I feel like I’ve overcome so many different obstacles ‘cause I feel like I should have love, I should be able to date whoever I want, I should be able to, like, live happy and go, just go wherever I want to go and not be judged every time I’m seen with someone.”
Hall agreed but also mentioned that part of dating someone involves meeting their parents. She then asked if Larsa had met Michael and ex-wife Juanita Jordan since making things official with Marcus.
Larsa shared that she did not really want to talk about the details of how the parents reacted to the relationship news, but admitted she had recently met them.
“I don’t really want to talk about them. I feel like it’s not about my parents or his parents; they’re all happy, and our whole family is fine. I feel like it’s more about where I am, where he is. We’re in a great place, we motivate each other, we’re really happy being together. I feel like that’s the most important thing.”
Hall made one last attempt to learn about Michael and Juanita’s reactions to the controversial pairing.
“They’re cool with it,” said Larsa, as she noted that when you’re an adult, your parents just want to see you happy. “So you have their blessing,” asked the Emmy Award winner. “Yeah, we’re great. I feel like we’ve spent holidays together and it’s good. We’re in a great place.”
The interview sparked a flurry of responses.
“If this was a MAN they wouldn’t be grilling him that hard.”
“She knows she is wrong for dating that man! She did it to spite her ex.”
