Sheryl Lee Ralph Explains How She Makes Her Bicoastal Marriage Work
Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph is a living icon. The 66-year-old star of stage and screen recaptured our hearts when she belted out a rendition of Dianne Reeves' song "Endangered Species" during her 2022 Emmy acceptance speech. Ralph took home the golden statuette for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Abbott Elementary.
Ralph has been acting for more than 40 years. "I've been at this since I was 19," the award-winning actress told The AARP Magazine. "That's a whole lot of years."
For nearly 20 of those years, Ralph has been married to her second husband, Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes. The couple lives on two different coasts—he is in Philadelphia, and she resides in Los Angeles.
"You have to have an incredible amount of trust in that other person," Ralph said. "We spend a lot of time talking to each other. But if he doesn’t see me every two weeks, he gets a little nervous. I married the man who has become my best friend."
She added, "When we met, I had these young children, and I appreciated that he did not try to insert himself as their father. He had his own children. My kids stayed close to their father, but they also had a friend they could talk to and confide in, and that was Vincent."
About her marriage, she adds, "At the beginning, some people said, “Well, that’ll never last. These two, they’re nothing alike.” Almost 20 years later, guess what? Those people are not together. Us? We’ve got no problems. If you can get through the first 20 years, you will probably be OK."
Ralph said that she and Hughes lived together during the coronavirus pandemic and that they do envision ultimately living together in the same home.
The actress said that her husband also had an influence on her desire to want to be a part of Abbott Elementary. "(As a state senator,) he has been talking about education for years. Why is it we don’t realize that all children in America deserve a great education? Their zip code should not determine whether they get that or not. And here comes this little show, focusing on teachers who make a daily sacrifice for children in a Philadelphia public school. I said, “Even if this is just a pilot, this is a pilot I want to do.'”
