John Leguizamo’s wife, Justine Maurer, recalls the moment she met the man who would become her husband. He too. “I shot Carlito’s way,” he says, recalling his time in the 1993 crime drama starring Al Pacino.
“I was the booker on the film,” says Maurer, 54. They met on a Manhattan corner outside of an award show. She was already a fan of his, having seen his critically acclaimed, politically oriented one-man shows like those of 1991. Mambo mouth. “In the early ’90s in New York, you couldn’t go anywhere without someone asking you, ‘Did you see that? Who is this guy?’ It was so explosive – she says. Maurer, she admits, was a little in love. “I thought he was cute. I asked the designers if I could be at his rehearsal, even though I wasn’t supposed to be there.” It was a beautiful sunny day, they both agree, and John went for a walk with his dog.
“Luigi,” says Leguizamo, 63. “I just finished Super Mario Brothers. I named the dog after my character. Justine was stunning. She was an angel. So beautiful, so sexy, simply stunning.”
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So the fit happened and then, well, nothing more. At the time, Leguizamo was in a relationship with actress Yelba Osorio. (The two married in 1994 and divorced in 1996.) “I think Justine and I were at very different times in our lives,” he says. “We were able to develop a friendship until the moment was right.”
“They were phone calls,” says Maurer. “We would call each other every few months, check in and have these incredibly long conversations.”
One day in 1996, Maurer’s phone rang again. He remembers saying, “I’m in town. Do you want to stop by?” The next day, the two went for a Sunday afternoon walk. “And that’s when it became obvious that there was something romantic here,” she says. Leguizamo admits he thought about her: “I said, ‘Let’s do this thing.’ And we moved in right away.”
John Leguizamo and Justine Maurer on their wedding day in 2003, courtesy of John Leguizamo and Justine Maurer.
First, they lived in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles for six months. “Drew Barrymore was on one side of us, and Keanu Reeves was on the other,” Leguizamo recalls. “I learned a lot. I didn’t want a stormy relationship. I wanted peace. I wanted to have an oasis. And Justine gave me all that.” They certainly had fun. “She loved hip-hop,” he says. “We would go to clubs. Hip-hop is part of my life. She came with me to places where they checked her mouth for razors! She’s a white girl from the Upper West Side!” (“That he was a new experience for me,” Maurer says with a laugh.)
“She became a healing force in my life,” continues Leguizamo, who married Maurer in June 2003 after the birth of their daughter Allegra in 1999 and son Lucas in 2000. There were differences, of course. “We’re both from New York, but I went to public schools; she went to private schools,” he says. “All my friends were Latino and Black, and all her friends were White and Jewish. But that made it exciting and thrilling. It wasn’t just preaching to the choir; it kind of converted someone. I love talking about my culture with Justine because it helps me understand where I came from and how far I’ve come.”
John Leguizamo says he was once fired from a movie because they couldn’t ‘have two Latinos’
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Lucas Leguizamo, Allegra Leguizamo, Justine Maurer and John Leguizamo.
Amy Sussman/WWD/Penske Media via Getty
These days, Leguizamo and Maurer live in Manhattan, where he still performs regularly and she sits on committees focused on city preservation. Allegra, now 24, has followed in her father’s footsteps as an actress and director, while Lucas, now 23, works in finance. Together with their children, they continue to celebrate their mixed worldview. “I never went to a seder in my life until Justine and I had children. It was so beautiful,” says Leguizamo.
“So we did Seders and then Easter. We would do Christmas and Hanukkah. I think it gave them a strong sense of connection to where they came from. You begin to see that your wealth doubles when you have diversity and intermarriage. Our children felt it – and now they live it.”
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