*Any talk of Sheryl Lee Ralph’s marriage to Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes being on the rocks due to their living situation has been exaggerated.
Referencing an Interview Ralph did with “Entertainment Tonight,” People reports she and Hughes are as strong as ever in their long-distance marriage, with their living situation solidly intact.
“Vincent and I have been married going on 19 years,” the “Abbott Elementary” star recently told ET at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. “We’ve been together 21 years. Abbott is shot in Los Angeles. My husband, as a senator, is always in his capitol [Harrisburg, Penn.], so I don’t know what magic people think we’re gonna do.”
Ralph’s comments come in response to rumors that she and Hughes were finally living together in his beloved Philadelphia after 18 solid years of marriage. With Ralph in Los Angeles and Hughes in Philadelphia, it could be a challenge, but they maintain being active in being available to see each other.
“We see each other on the average of every two weeks,” said Ralph. “And everybody who questions that I say, guess what? We’re still married!”
Scroll to continue reading
The close-to-two-decade union comes after Ralph and Hughes got married in 2005. The 66-year-old entertainer was living in Los Angeles when she met her 67-year-old paramour, who was in Philadelphia. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine that they found themselves getting to know each other while “under the same roof.”
“We were together 24/7, and it was great,” Ralph recently shared with AARP The Magazine. “I thought, ‘Wow, I like this man.'”
Ralph’s long-distance relationship with Hughes soon developed. Even though her husband is in Philly and she resides in LA to shoot “Abbot Elementary,” the “Dreamgirls” actor is known for her regular trips to the City of Brotherly Love.
“First of all, 20 years, keeping this marriage together, you have to be together sometime,” she told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Vincent is not able to leave the state the way I can leave the state. In fact, in 20 years of our being together, I’m going to say my husband has maybe been in California, 25 times. That means I’m in Philadelphia every two weeks.”
Responding to those wondering why she is in Philadelphia, Ralph has a simple answer.
“It’s always like, ‘What are you doing there?’ ‘Um, I’m married to Sen. Hughes. I live here,'” she explained.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Sheryl Lee Ralph’s New Documentary Explores HIV Impact on Black Women
