Oscar De La Hoya and Shanna Moakler.Photo:Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Years later, Oscar De La Hoya andShanna Moaklerare revisiting their complicated and drama-filled relationship.
Moakler was one of several people interviewed for thecandid, Fernando Villena-directed film(which aired on HBO in two parts, with the second, including Moakler’s interviews, airing Tuesday night), spotlighting the career and tumultuous personal life of the boxer.
Shanna Moakler.Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
De La Hoya, who is of Mexican descent, says in the doc that Moakler was the first American woman he ever dated. “Beautiful, blonde-haired girl,” he recalls in a separate interview about first seeing her. “Tall, slender, it was like a silhouette.”
“He was fun,” says Moakler. “He always made me feel so beautiful. I fell in love with him.”
As their relationship progressed, De La Hoya eventually revealed that he had two children with two other women, along with their daughter. Fatherhood weighed on him. “To be a father is a huge responsibility,” he says inThe Golden Boy. “I just didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to be a parent. And my answer was to drink.”
“His drinking was always an issue for me,” adds Moakler, “because he really does become a different person when he drinks. Even now when I look back on it, I didn’t want to believe it…even though I was living it.”
Oscar De La Hoya throws a punch at Jeff Mayweather on March 13, 1993.
Moakler also recalls getting phone calls from women alleging that they slept with her now-fiancé, De La Hoya. She says that she didn’t believe them, thinking that they were only after his money.
“I would chase him down in the nightclubs,” she adds, “and security guards would see me and they would rush him out the backdoor so I couldn’t catch him. He would always tell me, ‘No, I love you.’ ”
There was another accusation against Moakler’s fiancé in the form of an incident that allegedly took place in the couple’s residence in 1999. “We were spending Christmas in Palm Springs,” Moakler says. “His friends were having a party at our house in Bel Air. So he left and went to that party, and I was really hurt. This is Christmas. And then another woman accused him of rape in our home.” (Per the documentary, no criminal charges were filed in that particular case).
De La Hoya’s pursuit of a music career would lead to the end of his and Moakler’s relationship. The final straw for Moakler happened when she watched the Latin Grammys telecast and saw De La Hoya on the red carpet holding hands with Puerto Rican singer Mille Corretjer. De La Hoya later says inThe Golden Boy: “When I did take her [Millie] to the Grammys, for some apparent reason, Shanna thought I was still with her.”
Oscar De La Hoya.Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
However, Moakler maintains today that she and De La Hoya were still together at the time, and remembers confronting him about the Latin Grammys incident. “The next day, he got in the car with me. I just said, ‘Why did you do that? He looked at me dead in the face and goes ‘I don’t love you anymore.’ "
“He goes, ‘Shanna, I have more money than God.’ And he got out of the car and he came over to the window where I was sitting there, bawling. He knocked on the window and he goes, ‘Don’t be too hard on me.’ Nothing he said to me was the truth.”
De La Hoya married Corretjer in 2001 andthe couple gave birth to three children: Oscar Jr., Nina and Victoria.
Holly Sonders and Oscar De La Hoya.Denise Truscello/WireImage
Denise Truscello/WireImage
As shown in the documentary, De La Hoya, now a boxing promoter, has spent his time reestablishing his relationships with his three older children, Jacob, Atiana and Devon, after being an absent father when they were growing up.
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Despite the drama that led to their breakup, De La Hoya and Moakler are cordial now. “He and I actually went to dinner not that long ago,” Moakler says towards the end of the film.
“He said, ‘You didn’t deserve that. I’m truly, truly sorry for humiliating you and hurting you.’ It was sincere and it was like this glimmer of my friend back. I hadn’t seen that since he had left me in that car. But I still think he’s a work in progress."
Part two ofThe Golden Boyairs at 9 p.m. EST on HBO.
source: people.com
