This is Waithe he looks back on his short and old marriage Alana Mayo.
“I felt like, even though I wasn’t as happy as I should have been, I think this is what I was supposed to do,” Waithe, 42, said of his marriage to Mayo, 42, during the Monday, June 1, episode of. Dax Shepard‘s “Armchair Expert” podcast. “And I just didn’t have the language or understanding of that.”
Waithe and Mayo dated for three years before getting engaged in 2017. The couple got married in 2019 but ended up announcing their separation two months later.
“After much thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways,” the officials said in a joint statement to their rep in January 2020. “We have nothing but support for each other and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”
Mayo filed for divorce from Waithe in November 2020. The separation was finalized in May 2021.
Reflecting on what went wrong in her relationship, Waithe admitted that she took her happiness for granted when she decided to marry Mayo.
“My happiness didn’t feel like it mattered,” he said on Monday. “I think what was most important was that I respected this relationship.”
Waithe stressed that she is “grateful” for her marriage to Mayo, in part because she “changed my life,” going on to praise Mayo as an “amazing person.” He noted that the couple is “looking for something different.”
“One of the things was like, I actually realized that I didn’t want to have kids. And that was a really big life change. So, at that point … I kept putting it off,” the Chi creator explained. “So, it wasn’t me lying. It was me still trying to figure out what I want and who I want to be. And I think that’s why, for me, it’s so important for this idea to go away.”
Waithe said he is still “unclear” to Mayo about what he wants in life.
Many celebrity feuds have rocked Hollywood over the years, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin and Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Tatum and Dewan’s love story began on the set of 2006’s Step Up, where they starred as on-screen love interests. The two tied the knot in 2009 and welcomed daughter Everly in 2013. […]
“All I knew was, ‘I want to have this person. I want to have this house. I want to have this dog. I want to have this mural.’ But I never asked myself, ‘But where do you really want to be in five years?’” he continued.
Waithe also admitted that he did not end his relationship with Mayo “in a way that was honorable, that was honest, that was kind.”
“This is done in a way that sounds like a car crash.” And that’s because I was driving a car at a high speed, not knowing the gears, and just walking,” he explained. “And that doesn’t take responsibility for my behavior. … I wish I had made the plane better, you know what I mean? But I think in the end … it’s about giving yourself grace and looking back again [going]’Oh, you could have handled that much better.'”
Waithe concluded that he has “no ill will” towards Mayo after their split and is happy that his ex is happy.
“And for me, that’s how you know you really love someone, when you want them to be happy and be happy without you,” she said. “Because I don’t know if that happiness would have followed me if I had stayed there. For me, removing myself, I think it was the right thing to do because I wouldn’t be able to bring the life I thought he wanted.”
After four years of separation from Mayo, Waithe moved on with Cynthia Erivo in 2024. Meanwhile, Mayo has kept her private life out of the public eye.
