Eva Longoria Once Had Tony Parker's Jersey Number Tattooed on Her Neck

Who: Golden Globe-nominated actress Eva Longoria, 48, and French-American former professional basketball player and NBA championship-winner Tony Parker, 40. 

How They Met: In November 2004, Texas native Eva attended a San Antonio Spurs game with her father, and the Desperate Housewives alum was invited to the locker room to meet the players. 

There, it was “lust at first sight” for Eva after she heard Tony’s French accent (she had recently spent a summer in Paris), and Tony was also taken by her beauty, asking Eva and her dad to join him for dinner.

"I really thought she was very beautiful inside and had a good heart," Tony said during the couple’s joint appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006. "She's very family oriented, and I ... I love my family and my friends. She's the same way."

They soon began dating, and after a brief split in September 2006, they got engaged two months later.  

Why We Loved Them: They were each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Tony might not have known anything about Desperate Housewives before meeting Eva, but he quickly learned and accompanied her on the red carpet during award season every year. 

Eva, for her part, took her support for Tony a step further — and while she was already a Spurs fan and often spotted in the stands, she tattooed his jersey number (nine) on the back of her neck. The tattoo — along with two others — were removed following their split in 2010, and former President Obama even called Eva out for getting the ink in the first place. 

“Now was that a good idea?" Eva said Obama jokingly asked her about a tattoo denoting her and Parker's wedding date on her wrist when she joined him on the 2012 campaign trail. 

When They Peaked: On their wedding day: 7/7/07. 

It was a fairy tale come to life when Eva and Tony wed in front of 200 guests at the Church of Saint-Germain L'Auxerrois (across the street from the Louvre) in Paris. Eva wore a custom mermaid gown with a dramatic train by designer Angel Sanchez, and the couple exchanged diamond-encrusted Piaget rings during the lavish ceremony. 

Afterwards, the reception was hosted in a 17th-century castle, Château Vaux le Vicomte, in the French countryside, with the evening capped off by a private fireworks show. 

The Breakup: Three years into their marriage, Eva filed for divorce from Tony in November 2010, citing irreconcilable differences. 

The morning the news broke, Eva tweeted to her fans: “It is with great sadness that after 7 years together, Tony and I have decided to divorce. We love each other deeply and pray for each other's happiness." She added no other details at the time, but later revealed that they split after she found out Tony was having an affair (it was reported that he was cheating with former NBA player Brent Barry’s wife, a claim that both Parker and Barry have denied). 

In 2012, Longoria discussed how the cheating scandal took a toll on her self-esteem while appearing on the Lifetime series The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet. “It wasn’t about who he chose. I mean, I had moments of, ‘Am I not sexy enough? Am I not pretty enough? Am I not smart enough?'” Longoria said. “But in so many of those questions, I immediately stopped and said, ‘No, don’t start doing that.’ Because you can get stuck in that cycle.” 

She continued, “Society usually thinks there’s something wrong with the woman. ‘Oh, he cheated on her, so she must not have been sexually satisfying him. She must have been a ball and chain!'” says Longoria. “Why did he have to have a reason to cheat that had to do with me? … I am so secure in who I am. I really am! And I’m not conceited. I just think, ‘Wow, okay, that’s the life you want to live.'”

Three years later, Tony shared the heartache he experienced during an interview with Hello! Magazine. “It was a difficult and painful experience in my life,” he said. “It's not easy to leave a relationship, because when I get involved in something, I want to do well.”

Parker added that the media attention revolving around the scandal only made the situation worse. “The exposure, I could not control. This is the world we live in today; everything is on the Internet and on social network sites,” he explained. “I never paid attention to what people said. Hollywood is another world, on another level."

Where They Are Now: After staying single for two years following her divorce from Parker, Longoria found love again with her current husband, Mexican businessman José Bastón. They were introduced by a mutual friend in 2013, but they didn't start dating until they were reintroduced months later. Longoria and Bastón got married in 2016 and welcomed their first child together, a son named Santiago Enrique on June 19, 2018. Eva is also a stepmom to José's other four children from his previous marriage.

Following the Desperate Housewives series finale in 2012, Eva moved on to other TV acting gigs — including guest-starring roles in Telenovela, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Empire. Meanwhile, her most recent project, Tell It Like a Woman, was nominated for an Oscar.

Parker went on to marry French journalist Axelle Francine in 2014, and welcomed a son, Josh that same year. They divorced in 2020, and Parker is now in a relationship with French tennis star Alizé Lim.

In June 2019, Parker announced his retirement from the NBA. Throughout his 18-year-long career, he won four NBA championships, and became the first Frenchman to enter the legendary NBA Hall of Fame. Today, Parker is an ambassador for the Newrest Group, a multi-sector catering company.

#TBT: Check in every Thursday as we throw it back to some of our favorite celebrity couples of all time.

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