Tony Shalhoub’s Daughter Reveals How He Kept Family Out of the Tabloids

Tony Shalhoub has been in show business for over 40 years and, during that time, has done everything he can to keep his personal life private and his family out of the spotlight.

The Monk star and his daughter, Josie, recently sat down with Page Six to discuss their co-written memoir, We Thought They’d Never Leave, which recounts their family’s annual summer reunions in Wisconsin. Josie shared that growing up, her father made a conscious effort to keep his family out of the tabloids.

“My dad is beloved,” Josie told the outlet. “But growing up in Los Angeles, celebrities are a dime a dozen, and my dad is very private and very intentionally wanted to stay out of the tabloids.”

Josie said that the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel actor “didn’t want PR” and “just wanted to have his work-life balance, and I think he did a really great job of that.”

Shalhoub had his breakout role as Antonio Scarpacci on the NBC sitcom Wings from 1991 to 1997. He went on to play Adrian Monk in the hit USA Network series Monk from 2002 to 2009, earning three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.

More recently, the 73-year-old actor played Abe Weissman, the professor turned activist and critic in the Prime Video period comedy-drama The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He won another Emmy Award for the role, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Shalhoub married actress Brooke Adams in 1992. Before they married, Adams had already adopted Josie, and Shalhoub later adopted her as well. The couple later adopted another daughter, Sophie, two years later.

Josie made it clear that the upcoming memoir doesn’t include any of the typical juicy gossip. “Memoirs also have kind of this connotation that they’re salacious, they’re tell-alls, they’re deeply excavating,” she said. “So it just carries a certain kind of expectation.”

“And this is, well, first of all, there’s nothing to tell,” she added.”My dad is squeaky clean. There’s no skeletons in his closet!”

Instead, the book focuses on the family’s huge gatherings. Shaloub was the ninth of 10 children, and so the get-togethers can often include over 50 relatives.

“I wouldn’t say it’s easy. I would also say, and we say it in the book, it’s not a vacation either,” Shalboub shared. “It is something else. It’s effortful. But you know, kind of rewarding.”

Josie shared similar sentiments, adding, “The whole point of the reunion is to try our best to set differences aside; it’s not always possible, but it’s important for us to try.”