The Handmaid’s Tale star Samira Wiley and her wife, Lauren Morelli, have separated after nine years of marriage.
“After nine years together, we have decided to end our marriage,” Wiley, 38, and Morelli, 43, wrote in a joint statement shared with Out magazine on Thursday, January 29. “However, our lifelong commitment to coparenting will forever remain.”
A rep for the now-exes, who share 4-year-old daughter George, added that they are “amicably filing for divorce” on Friday, January 30. Wiley and Morelli have not further addressed their breakup. Us Weekly has reached out for comment.
The pair initially met in 2012 on the set of Orange is the New Black, in which Wiley starred as Poussey Washington and Morelli served as one of the series’ writers.
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“I had started questioning my sexuality as a result of being in the writers’ room and talking about all the themes on the show. I was still very confused, but I knew the attraction between us felt magnetic,” Morelli told Out in 2016. “We spent a couple of weeks together before Christmas on that first episode, and then I came back to New York in February. On set, it’s a bunch of women, so everyone’s hugging and touching. It’s a very affectionate place.”
She continued, “I’d fallen into this alternate universe, but I thought I’d go home and it’d disappear. But Samira was still so present for me.”
Morelli divorced then-husband Steve Basilone in 2014 before she publicly came out as queer and started dating Wiley.
“I remember walking down the street in New York and finally being able to hold her hand, and how huge that felt,” Morelli recalled to the outlet. “Walking to the date was more romantic and mattered more than wherever we were going or whatever we were about to do. … It had been such a journey to discover my sexuality, and to claim it in this public way was incredible for me.”
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Wiley and Morelli announced in 2016 that they were engaged, tying the knot the following year. After Morelli and Wiley exchanged vows, they started discussing their future plans.
“There’s always talk about our future, and we’ll just have to see where our life leads us,” Wiley exclusively told Us in June 2019. “We don’t get to spend that much time together, we’re always traveling, so it’s really special when we are together to be able to take the time and look in each other’s eyes. We just sit down and talk and maybe watch a documentary or something like that.”
Two years later, Morelli and Wiley secretly welcomed daughter George Elizabeth in April 2021.
“Happy first Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, who four weeks ago today after laboring for almost three days, gave birth to our first child — our gorgeous daughter, George,” Wiley wrote via Instagram in May 2021. “Welcome to the world, babygirl. We love you and we thank you for giving us the best first Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for.”
Morelli announced George’s arrival in her own social media tribute.
“Four weeks ago today, our daughter came into the world and changed everything,” Morelli captioned family photos. “We are so happy, so grateful and so tired.”
