Big Baller Brand co-founder and basketball patriarch, LaVar Ball, has pushed back against media reports claiming he and his wife of nearly 30 years, Tina Ball, are officially divorced. Barely two episodes into the Ultimate Dads Unplugged podcast alongside co-hosts Dwyane Wade Sr. and Quenton Brown Sr., the 58-year-old clarified the exact status of their relationship, confirming they are separated rather than legally divorced.
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Responding directly to a prompt from the show’s staffer behind the scenes, LaVar emphatically corrected the premise about his marital status stemming from his revelations in June 2026. “No, you don’t,” he countered to the word ‘divorce’ to describe his current relationship with Tina.
“First of all, we ain’t never—I ain’t never been divorced and Tina ain’t divorced. We separated,” Ball stated.
Contrary to what his previous comments suggested, Ball revealed that he and Tina had quietly managed their separation over the past few years.
“So, I don’t know where this came from on the fact that we ain’t been together for the past three years. And y’all just now finding that out? You know what you want to be? A marriage counselor. Tell them me and Tina cool. She went her way, I go my way. I ain’t going to stop her from what she doing. And I ain’t going to stop her from, what she doing. She ain’t going to stop me from what I do.”
The clarification comes after intense public speculation about the couple’s relationship status, which originally drew attention following LaVar’s earlier appearance on N3on’s YouTube stream at the Big Baller mogul’s home. During that appearance, LaVar acknowledged that he and Tina were no longer living together.
“You know, with my wife, Tina decided to go her own way—that’s why you don’t see her right here,” Ball said. “But she want to go do something else, that’s fine with me. We had our run,” he told N3on.
He also revealed, “I found somebody else, but it is what it is.”
However, his latest comments draw a clear line between living separate lives and undergoing formal legal divorce proceedings. No public court filings confirming a formal divorce have been widely reported.
LaVar and Tina Ball married in 1997 and raised three sons, Lonzo, LaMelo, and LiAngelo. All three took their shots at NBA careers, but Lonzo and LaMelo remain active NBA players while LiAngelo has largely shifted focus elsewhere.
LaVar and Tina launched the Big Baller Brand apparel line, created the Junior Basketball Association (JBA), and starred in the Facebook Watch reality series Ball in the Family, which documented both their business ventures and personal lives.
The family faced a major hurdle in 2017 when Tina suffered a severe stroke that left her with aphasia, a condition affecting verbal communication. Throughout her recovery, LaVar frequently spoke about maintaining his devotion to her, emphasizing in media interviews that her health challenges never diminished his view of her.
In early 2025, LaVar underwent a leg amputation below the knee following complications from diabetes and a foot infection, a health struggle he discussed openly during subsequent media appearances.
Their son, Lonzo, however, spoke out shortly after with his version of his parents’ separation. “My mom didn’t want to leave. She was quote-unquote damn near forced to leave. I helped her leave. I’m glad she left. She’s in a great spot.”
Lonzo also cleared the air on assumptions that LaVar’s health problems were the reason. “And she was not wrong at all. She did not leave him because he lost his foot. That’s a myth that was put out there. … They didn’t work out, and it is what it is, man. They’re both doing well, and I love them both. We can move on now.”
He also noted that his parents “don’t mess with each other” any longer.
Despite the physical and personal shifts over the last three years, LaVar emphasized on The Ultimate Dads Unplugged that there is no active conflict between him and Tina. By clarifying that they are separated rather than legally divorced, Ball presented the situation as amicable on his end, though his son’s comments indicate that the parents are no longer closely associated.