Cesar Millan is a famous dog trainer from Mexico who made a life-changing decision to move to the U.S. in 1990. Over the years, Millan’s love for training dogs propelled his career to show business, as he’s worked with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Brady.
But Millan says all of this would have never happened without the help of his now longtime friend Jada Pinkett Smith.
During a visit to “The Adam Carolla Show” in June, he explained how Pinkett Smith helped change his life.
In a resurfaced clip, Millan said, “I went to return a rottweiler named Kenji, and Jada was there at this party. And you know, when she saw me doing the demonstration she said, ‘You know, when I get a dog I would like you to train my dog. So then she got the dog. A few months later she got engaged with Will.”
Will Smith proposed to her in 1997. With both newly engaged individuals being in the industry, Millan seized his opportunity. He told the hosts, “So I say I would like to have my own TV or radio show because I want to teach people. People are coming to South Central, and they want to learn from me, but then she said, ‘Well, for that you need to speak English.’ So she paid a teacher for me to learn English for a year.”
Carolla encountered celebrities in his previous vocation as a carpenter, he told Millan.
He said, “When I would work for certain celebrities they had a little celebrity culture. They want good people that they can trust. So did Jada Pinkett get you into that world?”
Will and Jada got married a month after their engagement. Millan explained that he was able to get acquainted with other celebrities the year before, when Will did the 1996 movie “Independence Day.” Millan said after the film’s release he was able to come in contact with other individuals in the film industry, like “Bad Boys” director Michael Bay, “Fast and Furious” star Vin Diesel, and Nicholas Cage from “National Treasure.”
Another host on the show was curious about how the process works once Millan begins training a celebrity’s dogs. He asked Millan, “Do you stay at their house, or?”
Millan quickly said, “No, no, no, I will bring them with me. That’s how I became known as the Mexican guy who walk a pack of dogs. I was walking 40 dogs everywhere with me.”
Since meeting the “Set It Off” actress, Millan was able to make his dreams come true of having his own show. For nine seasons his “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan” aired on the National Geographic channel. He’s had a few other shows as well since launching in 2004.
However, years later he was involved in a lawsuit that named Jada’s co-star Queen Latifah.
One person said, “Didn’t he kill queen latifahs dog and she sued him?” Another added, “Dog whisperer tragedy what happened?” The “dog whisperer tragedy” refers to incidents where Millan’s pit bull allegedly attacked a gymnast and killed Queen Latifah’s dog, intensifying criticism of his training methods.
In 2021, gymnast Lidia Matiss filed a lawsuit against Millan, alleging his dog Junior attacked her when she was visiting her mom’s office building four years earlier. Her mom had worked for the dog whisperer at the time, and Matiss claims she was bitten multiple times on the legs during one visit by his pit bull Junior, who was not on a leash.
Millan’s rep would later describe Matiss’ recollection of the alleged attack as a “blatant lie,” claiming she came back to the property at a later date. Due to her severe injuries, she could no longer compete at the highest level in the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics programs after being recruited by the University of Pennsylvania, she claimed.
In her complaint, she also alleged that Millan’s dog attacked and killed Latifah’s dog and that he tried to cover it up. Millan’s dog died in 2021 as the case was going on. However, they avoided trial in 2022 by reaching a settlement. Terms of that agreement have not been revealed.
Now he’s on season 5 of his show “Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog,” which premiered on Aug. 16.