Jesse Williams and his wife. Photo courtesy of Hello.
Summary: Jesse Williams spoke out about the rumors that he had cheated on his wife with actress Minka Kelly.
Grey’s Anatomy hunk and Black Lives Matter activist, Jesse Williams, is involved in a bitter divorce. While his estranged spouse is no celebrity, the marriage has been gossiped about, and now Williams is opening up about it and addressing rumors that he cheated.
“I was in a relationship 13 years, 13 real years, not 5 years, not 7 years – 13 years,” Williams said, according to PEOPLE. “All of a sudden motherf—ers are writing think-pieces that I somehow threw a 13-year relationship. Like, the most painful experience I’ve had in my life like with a person I’ve loved with all of my heart – that I threw a person and my family in the trash because a girl I work with is cute.”
That girl Williams is referring to is Minka Kelly, who he has been spotted with lately. Kelly is an actress who has appeared in hit shows such as Friday Night Lights, and she met Williams on the shoot of a video game in Paris. According to Us Weekly, they have been secretly dating for months.
Minka Kelly and Jesse Williams. Photo courtesy of E!
Before the fame and the gossip, Jesse Williams had married real estate broker Aryn Drake-Lee in September of 2012. The two had met when Williams was a schoolteacher, and they had dated for five years before they wed in Los Angeles.
An anonymous source told PEOPLE that the couple were happy and different in New York City, but when they moved to Los Angeles so that Williams could pursue an acting career, tensions mounted.
“If you knew the couple they were back in Brooklyn, when he had dreads and a backpack and she was grinding doing real estate, you wouldn’t believe it,” the source said. “[Aryn] thought everyone was so different from their friends back in New York, and not as genuine.”
The source told the publication that they didn’t see the split coming, even though Williams was always working on the set of Grey’s Anatomy and Drake-Lee was at home with their kids, Sadie, 3, and Maceo, 2.
Drake-Lee filed for divorce in April, and according to The Huffington Post, Williams and Kelly had met in January and are now exclusive.
“They really care about each other and are dating exclusively,” a source said to E! News. “Minka has been there for Jesse not only as a girlfriend, but also as a friend.”
Since the divorce was filed, Williams and Drake-Lee have engaged in a custody battle, according to TMZ, and Williams has said that his wife doesn’t allow sleepovers or lets him see his kids more than three hours per day.