April 15, 2011 – Last weekend, Eva Longoria appeared on CNN’s ‘Piers Morgan Tonight’ and spoke candidly about her diverse roles in life: as then wife to basketball star Tony Parker, as an actress, director, businesswoman, nightclub owner, political activist, philanthropist and student – just to name a few.

Piers Morgan, who has taken over Larry King’s CNN slot, is known for his invasive and ‘real’ approach to interviewing celebrities.  If you’ve missed it, here’s a quick snippet from Longoria’s candid and tearful interview with Morgan.

MORGAN: Now look, I said, describe Eva Longoria to me in a way that I can talk to her. And they said, well, she’s a producer, she’s an actress, she’s a director, she’s a businesswoman, she’s a model. She’s a restaurateur, she’s a nightclub owner, she’s a political activist, she’s philanthropist, she’s a student.

LONGORIA: It’s very, very grounding. And you know even with my activism and my philanthropy, people go, your parents must be really proud. I say, no, they actually expect it. They’re proud but my mom expected me to do something.

MORGAN: Because you were brought up as a selfless family.

LONGORIA: Yes.

MORGAN: So it could never be about you.

LONGORIA: Yes. Yes. And it still isn’t.

(LAUGHTER)

LONGORIA: When I go home, believe me it ain’t about me.

MORGAN: Don’t you find that a bit unsettling when you go home?

MORGAN: No entourage?

LONGORIA: No entourage. I have — you know, I still go to the ranch and we sleep, you know, under the stars. And I have a very, very simple life. I know it’s hard when you see all the glamorous pictures in the red carpet because that is really — that’s my day job. But who I am and who I am at the core and what I think represents me is really reflected in my family.

MORGAN: Why do you like Twitter? From a business point of view.  And celebrity point of view? What’s the attraction of Twitter?

LONGORIA: You know it’s funny because Demi Moore and Ashton were, like, you know, the really pioneers of getting everybody on Twitter. And I remember talking to her, and I said, I just can’t be bothered, why do you do it?

And she’d said, to control what is out there about yourself. And I thought about that and said, god, that is pretty smart because then you take the bounty off gossip, and you take the bounty off a picture. And then I use it so much for philanthropy and every charity that I use. I use social media. And it’s just that outreach is viral.

MORGAN: Eva, we talked a bit about the good stuff from fame. You’ve recently been through a pretty unhappy period with the downside of fame, with the breakup of your marriage and stuff.

When that happens, is it 20 times worse because it’s all in the magazines and on television shows and so on? Or does it make no difference?

LONGORIA: Absolutely. And you’re right. What you talked about earlier, because I am so public and I am pretty open about myself and about my marriage I was, you know. Tony and I are going here, Tony and I are going there.

LONGORIA: Oh, yes. I believed it. You know, marriage in my family is really a sacred sacrament. It wasn’t something we did frivolously. And I really did. Our mantra was divorce is not an option. We always would kid about that. You know? I’ll kill him before I divorce him.

But, you know, I guess the relationship ran its course, and you know so many people want me to hate him or so many people want me — want to just destroy him. And I don’t. I wish nothing but the best for him, and a really good friend of mine said, hold on to the love and not the loss.

And there was a reason why we got married. There was a reason why we fell in love. There was a reason why we were together seven years. And I just hold on to that.

Credit: Piers Morgan Tonight airs daily on CNN at 8pm HKT. For more details go to www.piersmorgantonight.com