One big happy family! Wayne Brady wasn’t fazed when he spent his early days in quarantine with his ex-wife, Mandie Taketa, and her boyfriend, Jason, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s, like, every other day,” the Masked Singer alum, 48, told Us Weekly exclusively of his unconventional lockdown set-up on Tuesday, December 14, while discussing Royal Canin’s Puppy Pre-Show, airing in January 2021. “People ask that like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s so crazy.’ No, it’s not crazy. Like I said, [you have to] spend time with the family that you love. My ex-wife is my best friend and she’s my family and her boyfriend is part of that family. So who else would I spend this time with? … I’m very fortunate that we have that type of relationship.”
Brady and the dancer, 44, separated in April 2006 after seven years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in 2008. Despite their split, the How I Met Your Mother alum and Taketa have kept a strong bond through the years as they continue to coparent 17-year-old daughter Maile.
In March, Brady shocked fans after revealing that his blended family was spending time together in lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis.
“My ex-wife Mandie and I … have a different and, I think, a very special situation [compared to] a lot of people that coparent,” he told Access Hollywood at the time. “For the entire duration of [my daughter’s] life, we have coparented as best friends. Right now, we live virtually next door to each other. We quarantine between both of our homes. I’ve got a big backyard and lots of land, so we both share this land and this space. Mandie, her boyfriend Jason, my daughter Maile ― we are a family. We’re like this new nuclear family.”
At the beginning of the global health crisis, Brady told the outlet that he was thankful for the extra time he was able to spend with his loved ones, even under challenging circumstances. “Moments like this bring you closer,” he said in March.
While Brady and his so-called “core four” appear to have it all figured out on social media, the Whose Line Is It Anyway? star admitted that navigating a coparenting arrangement with his former spouse isn’t always a piece of cake.
“It’s not easy, that’s the thing. … You see the end result,” he told Us on Tuesday. [People say], ‘Oh, you guys are aspirational.’ Well, if you knew the fighting and the therapy and the tears and the work that it takes to make this look easy, then we’ve earned the right to coparent together and we’ve earned the right to have a blended family. … It’s all about the work.”
The Georgia native’s blended family doesn’t just consist of human beings — he also has a “beautiful little pack” of seven pooches. Brady is teaming up with Royal Canin for the upcoming AKC National Championship and couldn’t be more excited to put his love of dogs to use.
“I think they came to the right guy. … They came to a true puppy friend,” he joked. “I am a dog lover, for real.”
Tune in for the Puppy Pre-Show on Royal Canin social media channels beginning on Tuesday, January 12, 2021. The AKC National Championship, presented by Royal Canin, airs on ABC Sunday, January 17, 2021, at 2 p.m. ET.
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