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While some are skeptical about looking for that special someone through web sites and apps, many people have had success when it comes to finding love online. It was how actress Essence Atkins met her husband, Jaime Mendez.

When speaking on stepping outside of her comfort zone to try online dating, Atkins told Essence that she didn’t want to “waste any more time” on the dating scene. When she finally created a profile and started mixing and mingling with men on Match.com, she literally found her match.

“I put myself in the frame of mind where I wasn’t going to waste any more time,” she said. “I met my husband at 36; a lot of people have questioned it like, ‘she’s so desperate.’ I didn’t want to waste any more time. After 35, I felt like I’d been in these relationships, some were great, some weren’t so great, but they weren’t right partnerships. So I did this inventory, I’m not going to just settle for anyone, and at this point I don’t have anymore time to waste if I wanted to have children.”

Sadly, Atkins’ relationship with Mendez, is coming to an end. She shared the news the first time publicly while appearing as a guest on Hollywood Today Live with Garcelle Beauvais, Ross Mathews and Tanner Thomason.

“I am going to be entering the dating world after nearly a decade,” Atkins said. “I’m in the process of getting a divorce, sadly. It’s weird because literally, three weeks after filing, I got this job where I’m playing a newly divorced woman who’s co-parenting with her ex that she still loves, but they’ve somehow realized that they’re not meant to partner together anymore. It was kind of this weird, amazing moment the universe was like, here’s art imitating life and we’re going to talk about this and you’re going to explore it in a really humorous way.”

The show she was talking about is the upcoming comedy, Marlon, starring Marlon Wayans. The series is loosely based on Wayans’s life. He plays a “loving but immature dad” and Atkins plays his ex-wife.

Atkins went on to say that she’s realized that even in divorce, there’s love and humor, as well as the need to have a loving relationship for the sake of the children involved.

“Even in deconstructing a family, you’re still figuring out a way to be a family.”

The actress married Mendez in September 2009 after meeting on Valentine’s Day in 2008 through Match. The pair have a 4-year-old son together named Varro.

With that being said, Atkins also realizes that she’s going to have to reenter the dating scene. That truth is something Atkins is struggling to deal with, as the 44-year-old acknowledges that things are very different than what she remembers.

“I feel like ‘Oh yeah, I’m ready!’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m not!'” she said. “I’ve turned 40 since I’ve dated. I don’t know, people don’t talk anymore, they text. They only call if it’s a dire emergency. I have no idea how to go about it.”

But she did note that she does have a type that she’s looking for when she finally does get back out there, and the guy should be a very interesting combination of a fit man, and a funny man.

“I don’t know, I guess I kind of want him to be like The Rock and Jim Carrey,” she said, to the hosts’ surprise. “They’re both really interesting. The Rock is of course gorgeous and chivalrous and huge, but Jim Carrey makes me laugh. He’s got such humanity about him. And he’s always saying these wise things and then he does something silly. I feel like that’s me.”

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