Mo Amer Got Divorced During the Pandemic, and Now He's Opening Up About It

As his profile continues to rise, stand-up comedian Mo Amer has gotten honest about his relationships and how they've evolved. Thanks to his new Netflix series, Mo, many are curious about whether Mo is married, and how closely the story of his show hews to who he really is as a person.

Mo was married, but in his recent stand-up special, he announced that he was now divorced. The version of himself that he plays in his Netflix series shares many of the details from his own life, including his onscreen love interest, Maria, who is a Mexican American woman who is quite similar to Mo's real-life ex-wife. On the show, Mo is afraid to commit in part because of his own self-esteem and in part because he knows his mother won't approve of the match.

The exact reasons for Mo's divorce remain unclear, but in his Netflix special in 2021, he described his feelings of uncertainty around the pandemic and how they were connected to his divorce.

"I got divorced in the pandemic. It happened, what are you going to do?" he said during the special. "It just didn't work out, you know what I mean? And, it's fine."

"When you're married for so long, you're just used to certain things," he continued. "I was dead asleep one night, and I farted so hard I woke up ashamed. I looked over to my left, and I apologized, and there was nobody there! I just turned over and cried."

Mo is clearly unafraid of mining his own life experiences for use in his comedy, and that's likely to fuel his show on Netflix just like it fuels his standup.

Mo does not have a daughter, but he did have a stepdaughter who he was raising along with his ex-wife. Now that the two are divorced, it's unclear what the precise nature of his relationship with his stepdaughter is. Hopefully the two can maintain some sort of connection in spite of the fact that he's no longer romantically involved with her mother.

In speaking with The New York Times, Mo discussed how his life has influenced his new show, and how he uses his comedy to channel his day-to-day anxieties.

“Most of my life has been anxiety, and I think comedy is the way I’ve been able to channel it,” he said. “Stand-up has been a lifesaving thing for me."

"Stand-up allows the space for me to emote how I feel at any moment in time," he continued. "With stand-up, you spend most of your life getting better at it, but also trying to top yourself. Imagine a brick wall. Every time you go onstage, you chip away at the wall until eventually there’s nothing in front of you except the crowd.”

As fans prepare for Mo, many are excited about the possibility of learning more about the man behind the series.