Samantha Cope is opening up following the end of her relationship with Joey Lawrence.
On Saturday, Aug. 24, the actress, 37, shared her first social media post following the news that she and the Melissa & Joey actor, 48, are splitting two years after tying the knot.
“An amazing friend of mine recently told me, ‘Don’t be afraid of the tears. Let them flow. Because every tear is God gently squeezing the pain and devastation from your heart to make room for new, beautiful feelings to come in,’” she wrote in the caption of her Instagram post, which featured a montage of emotional clips.
She also shared some humorous advice her friend gave her: “The more you cry, the less you pee,” before concluding, “So let them flow. You got this. 🩵🙏🏻”
One of the clips showed Samantha and her daughter, Dylan Rose, 1, in the car, and another depicted the mother-daughter pair enjoying a lakeside outing.
“Look at you, look how far you’ve come,” a voiceover narrated the video. “You’ve faced your trauma, and you came out on the other side. And I’m sorry to get a little emotional. But there were times I was really worried about you, miss girl. But look at you today. I am so proud of you. You’re a survivor, baby.”
In her Aug. 13 divorce filing—which listed her and Lawrence’s date of separation as June 7—Cope requested sole physical custody and shared legal custody of their child.
“Samantha will have 100% physical custody of Dylan, with visitation at Samantha’s discretion,” the filing read. “Once Dylan is 3 or older, Joey will have the option to take her for 2 nights in her home location if he is not working and can facilitate her visiting.” Joey has not yet responded or commented publicly on the separation.
The Insecure actress also requested that Joey not take their daughter for “long, extended periods of time until she is old enough to specifically ask for the visitation time, and all parties agree and are able to facilitate.”
After Samantha, 37, filed for divorce from Joey Lawrence citing irreconcilable differences, separate court documents alleged that Joey had cheated on Samantha with his Socked in for Christmas co-star Melina Alves.
“Joey met Melina Alves on the set of their movie, where she was a producer,” a source close to the former couple revealed. “He then love-bombed her just like he love-bombed Samantha. He continued to date Melina even after Samantha found out and confronted him.”