Two months after revealing that she and her longtime love secretly married, Lena Waithe and her wife Alana Mayo announced Thursday that they are calling it quits. Fans and Twitter users quickly speculated that the breakup was due to cheating by “The Chi” creator.
In a joint statement, Waithe, 35, and Mayo announced that they are parting ways after their two-month matrimony. The couple announced their engagement in 2017.
"After careful thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways," read a joint statement from their reps obtained by E! News. "We have nothing but support for one another and ask that you respect our privacy during this time."
Waithe, who wrote last fall’s “Queen and Slim,” gushed about her secret nuptials with Mayo in an interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in November. She referred to the last-minute decision to wed at a courthouse in San Francisco as Mayo’s idea, “as all good things are.”
“And she was just driving and she saw the courthouse and she said, 'We should get married there,’ " Waithe said. “And I said, 'Cool, I'm down.' "
In 2017, Waithe was thrown into the spotlight when she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for writing the “Thanksgiving” episode on “Master of None.” She was the first African American woman to win the Emmy in that category. The episode, which tells a coming-out story for her character, helped position the Chicago native as an emerging perspective for black LGBTQIA Hollywood.
Waithe in several interviews had spoke candidly and adoringly about her relationship with Mayo, who spearheaded production and development at Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society, a production company.
After the breakup announcement, some on Twitter on Thursday speculated that the split was due to Waithe cheating, after a blog post by Love B. Scott made those claims. That rumor led to several panning the writer and executive producer for creating stories promoting African American women despite reportedly dishonoring her wife and marriage.
Some reports linked Waithe with Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo, who played the lead role in “Harriet.”
Mayo, Waithe and Erivo have not provided any statements after the various reports of cheating circulating online.
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