While reflecting on her marriage to ex-husband, actor Cory Hardrict, actress Tia Mowry reveals she lost her virginity to him as she couldn’t date until age 18, so when they met, he became her first everything.

As a refresher, Tia Mowry, 46, and Cory Hardrict, 44, first met back in 1999 and in 2008 they tied the knot. In October 2022, they announced the end of their 14-year marriage and in April 2023 their divorce was finalized. The two also welcomed two children together, a son, Cree, 13, and a daughter Cairo, 6.

During the premiere episode of her new reality TV series, ’Tia Mowry: My Next Act,’ the ‘Sister, Sister’ star didn’t hold back about losing her virginity later than most. In a now-viral clip, Mowry is having a deep conversation with her friends, including fellow actress Essence Atkins, 52.

Mowry asked Atkins how did she navigate her own 2016 divorce from her husband of 10 years, Jaime Mendez. Mowry agreed with many points Atkins made and went on to share that she “got tired of showing up at events and people thinking that everything was perfect when it wasn’t.” She said she would leave those events, go home, and “feel all alone.”

As the screen cut to Tia Mowry in a confessional, she revealed, “My persona as a celebrity, is kind of like, ‘The Girl Next Door,’ ‘The White Picket Fence.’ But, what I didn’t show was the reality of what was really going on in my marriage.” She reasoned, “Maybe I was trying to live a fantasy.”

Cutting back to Mowry, Atkins, and their friends sitting on a couch, Mowry revealed, “You know I’ve never dated?” She explained, “Cory was my first, everything!” Cutting back to her confessional, Tia Mowry admitted, “I wasn’t even allowed to date until I was 18 years old. I met Cory when I turned 20 and I lost my virginity at 25. There, I said it…. And then we got married! BOOM! Welp!”

Before recently sharing details about losing her virginity in her mid-20s to ex-husband Cory Hardrict, Tia Mowry previously opened up about it during a 2013 interview with Ebony. At the time, she said, “My husband and I, we were friends for a whole year before we decided to start dating. And even once we started dating, we waited. I lost my virginity at 25. So we even waited for a while to even get intimate. This works for some people and it doesn’t work for some people and it’s OK. That’s what I mean by baggage. Know and learn and understand what baggage can you handle and what can you not handle.”