JOHN LEGUIZAMO'S 30-YEAR LOVE STORY - MY WIFE HAS ALWAYS HAD MY BACK'

WHEN THE EMMY-WINNING ACTOR MET HIS FUTURE WIFE JUSTINE MAURER, IT WAS FRIENDSHIP AT FIRST SIGHT. THEN CAME THE REALLY GOOD STUFF

- JASON SHEELER

John Leguizamo’s wife, Justine Maurer, remembers the moment she met the man who would become her husband. He does too. “I was shooting Carlito’s Way,” he says, recalling his time on the 1993 crime drama starring Al Pacino.

“I was a costumer on the movie,” Maurer, 54, says. They met on a Manhattan corner outside a wardrobe fitting. She was already a fan of his, having seen his critically acclaimed, politically pointed one-man shows like 1991’s Mambo Mouth. “In the early ’90s in New York you couldn’t go anywhere that somebody didn’t ask, ‘Have you seen it? Who is this guy?’ It was so explosive,” she says. Maurer had, she admits, a bit of a crush. “I thought he was cute. I asked the designers if I could be at his fitting, even though I didn’t need to be there.” It was a beautiful sunny day, they both agree, and John walked up with his dog.

“Luigi,” says Leguizamo, 63. “I’d just done Super Mario Brothers. I named the dog after my character. Justine was stunning. She was an angel. So beautiful, so sexy, just captivating.”