As love fills the air this season, the time has come for one of Broadway's most well-kept secrets to be shared with the world. Two have recently become one.

On Sunday (April 21), actors Mykal Kilgore and Nathan Riley married in San Juan Capistrano, California, before family and friends.

The newly minted couple also took to Instagram with a photo carousel to mark their milestone.

"Hard Launch," said the message in the caption.

While their road to happily ever after was five years in the making, that journey resulted from a chance encounter in 2016 after a performance of "The Color Purple," which led to Riley eventually curbing Kilgore.

At the time, he was focused on "a Hot Boy Summer," although Kilgore contended they were meant to be.

Still, that rejection wasn't enough to stop their gateway to eternity.

Then, during the height of the pandemic, time was met with opportunity, and these two forged an inseparable bond by talking for hours on the phone. Kilgore worried their in-person connection wouldn't stack up against what they had developed on the phone.

To his surprise, their first date exceeded both of their expectations.

Now, as their past continues to light the path for their future, they admit the best is yet to come, for them individually, and as a unit.

Days before their big day, BET.com sat down with Kilgore and Riley to discuss how the early days of their relationship propelled them forward and how they are unlearning tropes they gleaned during their childhood to break generational strongholds for a brighter tomorrow.

Bet.com: The COVID-19 lockdown was a turning point in both of your lives together, but in the beginning, Nathan turned you down! Mykal, you said that moment drew you closer to yourself. Talk to me more about that.

Mykal Kilgore: I had always been the kind of person who was thinking, "How do I be the person that the person I like wants? What do I change to present myself in a way that makes me more attracted to them? I'm really good at that with my friends, but I wasn't good at that in a relationship. He made it so easy for me to be my normal goofy self. We both were on healing journeys when we reconnected, but there was a part where I allowed myself to really be myself with him and it was new territory. I knew that this was a different thing than anything I've been in before.

Bet.com: Nathan, what made you curb Mykal after shooting his shot at you?

Nathan Riley: Right before the pandemic hit, I was going through my healing journey and a lot of therapy. And I was getting over me kind of blowing up my life. So I was in my like, "I don't need a man. I'm just here to have fun and my "Hot Boy Summer," but like it was winter. I had slid in his DMs when we started chatting. Then, at one point in our conversation, he said, "What does somebody have to do to be your man?" and I was like, "Nothing because I'm not looking."

Bet.com: Then, in 2021, you both began dating. Do you think that five-year gap was worth the wait?

Mykal Kilgore: Oh my God, yes! At that time, we both had been in relationships before we officially met and learned a lot of things about ourselves, made huge mistakes, and learned really valuable lessons about how to be a partner [and] how to be real with ourselves.

By the time we got together, I really felt like I was meeting a new person. Even though we had [previously] met, we were really different people than when we were introduced to each other at "The Color Purple."

Bet.com: Was there a moment when you both realized that you were each other’s perfect match? Or did that realization occur organically?

Nathan Riley: It sort of did. There were a few signs. One: I don't play house. Two: I don't talk on the phone. I'm a texter. I don't do phone calls, but with him, it was easy to talk to him on the phone.

Mykal Kilgore: I told him our first date, "You're my husband," and Nathan was like, "I don't think so, but I'll pray about it."

That was a big deal moment for me.

Nathan Riley: I said, "I'm not there yet."

Mykal Kilgore: Another big thing for me was that we started introducing ourselves to each other's families. We didn't even call ourselves dating until our family signed off because we kind of knew that whatever we were going to do from that point on was going to be an all-in situation.

Bet.com: Take me into the engagement. Who dropped down on one knee?

Nathan Riley: Once we were on the path as life partners, I was very clear to him. I said you will be proposing to me and I'm taking your last name.

Mykal Kilgore: I gave him a card first [because] I'd been giving him cards the whole anniversary and the card had a honey bear on it and inside it just said "Thank you." Then he was like, "Oh, good night." And I was expecting him to be like for what? So I put the ring on the bed in the box and he was like, "What is this?"

He opens the box, and my immediate thought is to say something funny or goofy. I start to talk, but I catch myself and stop. I go, "Nathan, I love you. I want to be with you. Will you marry me?"

He goes to put the ring on, but it's too tight because he's had too much salt. The ring doesn't go on, and my mind is just spinning because I was like, "Oh my God, I got the wrong size ring."

The next morning, I'm on a flight. I get off the flight, and I get a text. He says, "It does fit. I just drank some water. It fits."

Bet.com: How have you navigated a relationship while being in demand on opposite coasts?

Nathan Riley: It's not easy and I don't know that we have a real recipe yet, but we try and visit as much as we can. So we prioritize [each other] if there's a break long enough.

Mykal Kilgore: We do have a lot of grace and care for one another. There's no question about the love.

I don't have to wonder if he misses me, if he's thinking about me, or if he loves me. We have built a bank full of memories, too, that allow us to hold on to when we're apart. And I think the biggest thing is that we both understood what we were getting into. I knew I was marrying and being in a relationship with another actor.

I feel really honored to be the co-steward of his dreams. I feel really blessed to be someone who gets to tie my destiny to his. So, I want him to be successful. I want him to be booked and on the road and doing shows and he wants the same thing for me.

We are two people in love who have also been in love with our art for our whole lives too. So we have found a way to make space for the passions of our lives without them ever usurping the love we have for one another.

Bet.com: What’s the best advice you’ve received from married friends?

Mykal Kilgore: Recently, I got some advice to ask how I can be of support, not to assume, not to just do the thing, and to trust that they won't lie when they respond. I'm the oldest of nine, so that's hard for me to do because I'm very bossy. So, with him, I'm learning.

Nathan Riley: Mine is simple, but it makes sense. "Listen, but have an opinion" because often, we want to share our opinion first and fix the thing. Listening is the key. At the same time, you're not just a sounding board. You're a partnership. So you have to have an opinion because you're building something together.

Bet.com: Growing up, what was the relationship in the home you were reared in and how will you apply what you observed into your lives while married? 

Mykal Kilgore: My uncle is a "man's man" but he was the cook, he was the one who washed clothes and folded clothes. The gender roles in that house were turned entirely on their rear, and it didn't ever rob him of his masculinity or rob my aunt of her femininity. So I don't have an expectation of, "I do this and you do that." It's, whatever position we got to play on this team to win. If I have to be the halfback one day, and the quarterback the next day, then I'm gonna do it.

Nathan Riley: I want to keep a lot of things even though my parents have been married for so long. The biggest thing that I have seen is that there can sometimes be a dominant and a passive partner in a relationship, and I know that I have reaped some of that passivity myself as a partner. So, for me, it's breaking some of that passivity and being true equals, equally yoked in terms of partnership.

Bet.com: Besides saying “I do,” what are you the most excited about on your big day?

Mykal Kilgore: I'm super excited because we have pieces of our life that have never really come together. It's gonna be a room full of people that we all adore, that don't really know each other and it'll be nice to see that kind of delicious stew of people come together. I'm really excited to see our best friends intermingling in our family.

Nathan Riley: Our wedding party is really small, but it's truly our closest friends. My wedding party and his wedding party have known each other for a long time, but they have never met. I'm really excited because we're all staying together in a house.

Bet.com: How involved in wedding planning have you been? Are you enjoying the process?

Mykal Kilgore: We're really lucky because we have an incredible wedding planner, Rolanda Hardy. She has been such a gem throughout this whole process holding our hands. She's helped us with almost every decision about trying to do a wedding that wasn't something we saw on TV, and something that was really about the two of us. So that made it super hard. I have been annoyingly, prickity spicket about every little detail.

Nathan Riley:  I've been involved, but it took me a minute to pick up steam to get into the details. But we were very clear about wanting Black queer and women-led vendors. We did a lot of research, finding people that fit that kind of specific category. Everybody truly was hand-picked.

Mykal Kilgore: That has been extremely enriching for us to do a wedding that echoes our politics. We believe in the importance of Black women, their voices, their talent, queer folks, and Black people in general.

Bet.com: After the wedding, where will you celebrate your honeymoon?

Mykal Kilgore: We haven't planned a honeymoon yet. We both have gigs right after the wedding, but we're going to carve out some time to do something. We live on the road, we are always traveling, so a honeymoon actually feels lovely to be like, "We're gonna actually come home and sit down for a minute."

Bet.com: Where are you planning to reside after your nuptials?

Mykal Kilgore: We're going to be in New York City for the foreseeable future, but we're open to finding another place eventually.

Bet.com: If you could choose one song to sum up your relationship, which would it be?

Mykal Kilgore: For me, it would have to be "Thank You Love" by Stevie Wonder.

Nathan Riley:  "All the Man I Need," by Whitney Houston.

Bet.com: So, what’s next for the both of you in the future?

Mykal Kilgore: I have my new album coming so after the wedding it's getting the final bells and whistles on my next project.

Nathan Kilgore: I have a few theater performing opportunities in the late Spring, early Summer.