On Lifetime’s new docuseries Hopelessly in Love, each episode delves into the dark backstory of an infamous celebrity couple. The episodes will also feature original interviews with friends and family to make each tragic story come to life.
The first episode focused on former NFL player Andre Rison and the late rapper Lisa ‘Left-Eye’ Lopes of the ‘90s girl group TLC. Lopes and Rison’s most extreme moments as a couple, such as Lopes’ felony arson charges and five years of probation for burning down Rison’s Atlanta mansion, as well as Lopes’ untimely death in a car accident in Honduras, played out in the media. But a lot of their inside story seems to have gone untold.
On Hopelessly in Love, Rison claimed he never physically cheated on Lopes until he thought she was making a move on Tupac Shakur. But Lopes’ family and friends, fans, and even Rison’s own loved ones thought differently.
Rison’s family and friends suggested he was unfaithful to Lopes
Lopes’ sister Reigndrop Lopes explained that Rison’s family was always skeptical of his relationship with the famous rapper. In particular, his sister Raquel Brown “hated” Lopes. Still, Reigndrop said that tensions with her boyfriend’s family weren’t the only issue in their love story.
“Andre’s family wasn’t the only issue with their relationship,” Reigndrop said on Hopelessly in Love. “Lisa suspected and even caught Andre being unfaithful.”
Rison’s cousin Kermit Reeves agreed, saying his football player cousin “wasn’t a one-woman man.” He added, “Andre needed all the women he could get.”
Even Rison’s mom, Merdice Brown Coleman, said Lopes wasn’t his only romantic partner. “Lisa wasn’t the only person that he was dating. I know he did see other women,” she claimed.
Rison played down the cheating accusations as rumors because of overexcited groupies and fans. “You gotta remember. I’m in the National Football League…and I’m like, booming. So I kinda, like, picked the cream of the crop, as they say,” he said of his relationship with the TLC rapper. “But we both had groupies. I’d been on the tour and at the stage where the boys going crazy.”
He added that their high-profile status introduced “doubt” and “insecurity” into their relationship.”
Rison claimed he didn’t physically cheat on Lopes
Despite the other Hopelessly in Love interviewees’ claims, Rison held strong to his statement that he didn’t cheat on Lopes. Instead, he claimed he had “mental” connections with some other women, but he was only physical with the hip-hop star at the time.
“I remember my agent telling me,” Rison began. “He said, ‘I’ve seen you with five different women in the last month.’ He said, ‘Ain’t no way in hell you’re sleeping with them. He said, ‘You just be talking to them, don’t you?’” I said, ‘Yep.’ I said, ‘I like beautiful company, and we be chopping it up.’ I said, ‘A lot of the women I’ll be helping from a mental standpoint.’”
Reigndrop wasn’t buying it and laughed hysterically when Hopelessly in Love producers told her what Rison had said. “That’s funny.”
Lopes’ cousin Tangi Foreman disagreed too, claiming, “I immediately started seeing the cheating.”
But Rison doubled down, insisting, “I don’t give a flying f*** what people say. I don’t, ‘cause I know the truth. I know for a fact, at least within five years, well, beyond five years, uh, within those first five years, no, nah, nah. I didn’t sleep with nobody outside of her.”
The former NFL wide receiver did admit that something “might” have gone down the night Lopes claimed to have caught him “because of what [he] was feeling and what [he] had just seen,” meaning allegedly seeing Lopes in a car with Tupac.
Viewers weren’t at all convinced of Rison’s claims
Hopelessly in Love viewers were not convinced by Rison’s story, to say the least.
“Did Andre really say he helped those women from a mental standpoint?!?! Yeah OK,” one Twitter user wrote during the episode. Another also poked fun, joking, “He’s helping women from a mental standpoint? Who the hell does Andre think he is? Oprah?”
Many fans couldn’t get enough of Reigndrop’s reaction to Rison’s denial of any cheating. “Reigndrop just laughed her a** off at the thought the Andre was just talking to dem women,” a viewer joked.
Other Hopelessly in Love viewers called Rison out for being such a possessive and jealous partner when it was clear he at least flirted on the side during his relationship with Lopes. “It’s also pretty interesting that Andre ‘didn’t cheat’ and was just talking to women ‘helping them mentally’ but couldn’t handle Lisa talkin to Pac getting the mental help his sister say she needed,” wrote one Twitter user.
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