Lena Waithe's Wife Files For Divorce 10 Months After Split — Meet Alana Mayo
The couple got married in 2019.
YouTube We all first came to know of Lena Waithe when she had her breakthrough role in the hit Netflix series, Master of None, which debuted in 2015.
Since then, she's become known as a writer and has made history for becoming the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series thanks to Master of None's "Thanksgiving" episode, which was loosely based on Lena's story of coming out to her mother.
In Nov. of 2019, she married her longtime girlfriend, Alana Mayo, in a small, intimate ceremony.
However, just two months later, the pair split amid cheating rumors on Waithe's side, and now, the couple has officially called it quits, with Mayo filing for divorce from Laithe on Nov. 22.
Who is Lena Waithe's ex-wife, Alana Mayo?
Read on for all the details about Alana Mayo and her relationship with Lena Waithe.
They got engaged on Thanksgiving.
Perhaps in a case of "art imitating life imitating art," it was reported that Lena Waite proposed to Alana Mayo on Thanksgiving Day, 2017.
Lena told the outlet that she did it in a very low key fashion, which was what Alana preferred.
"The funny thing is, it was actually super-chill ’cause even though I am very over the top, my lovely lady is like the opposite, which is good, because I’m very much in front of the scene and she’s very much behind them," Waithe said.
Lena Waithe and Alana Mayo planned their wedding for a while.
Lena Waithe and Alana Mayo weren't exactly keeping their wedding on the down-low. In fact, Waithe said that she prepared for the wedding in a most spectacular way:
"It’s going to be super small, crazy small. It’s almost like an excuse to have fun with our friends. [...] We’re anti-stress. We’re trying to make it not a stressful situation, that’s our goal."
Alana Mayo is a content executive.
According to Mayo's LinkedIn profile, she served as the Vice President of Production at Paramount Pictures for more than five years.
She's currently the content executive and the head of production at the Outlier Society, as well.
Lena Waithe said that she got into a relationship "with a straight woman."
Well, this is interesting!
The producer and actress said that she felt like she got into a relationship "with a straight woman" during an interview.
Interesting choice of words!
"I love the fact that I can say to people that my girlfriend used to be a full-blooded heterosexual woman. She was never closeted; she was never pining. People always go: 'Oh, so she was closeted all of those years?' And I go, 'No! Not at all,'" she said.
"She just took a liking to me and wanted to try dating me. I’m the first serious, adult relationship she’s ever had. I don’t think it’s about the fact that I’m a woman; it’s about the fact that she and I connect on a deep, human level."
They got married in San Francisco.
Lena Waithe and Alana Mayo got married in San Francisco in an intimate ceremony.
Lena Waithe broke the news to John Legend, who was guest-hosting on Ellen at the time, to celebrate his win for Sexiest Man Alive.
Alana Mayo wanted to get married in front of Harvey Milk's bust, so she and Lena Waithe did just that.
"We went to the courthouse and got married right in front of Harvey Milk’s bust," Lena Waithe said. "It was her [Alana's] idea — like all good things are — and she was just driving and she saw the courthouse and she said, ‘We should get married there,’ and I said, ‘Cool, I’m down.’"
The couple were hit with cheating rumors two months after their wedding.
Just two months after their fairy tale wedding, fans thought labeled Waithe a "cheater" after rumors about her infidelity hit the web.
The couple released a joint statement about their split, saying, "After careful thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways."
"We have nothing but support for one another and ask that you respect our privacy during this time."
Divorce papers were officially filed almost one year after they tied the knot.
According to court docs, Mayo officially filed for divorce from Waithe on Nov. 22, 2020.
A representative for Waithe has yet to comment on the matter.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times and the New York Post. She is also the author of The Uprising series.