Orange is the New Black star Samira Wiley splits from wife... a decade after show helped spouse come out

Orange Is The New Black star Samira Wiley and her wife Lauren Morelli are calling it quits, over a decade after working on the show that helped bring them together. 

A representative for the exes told Out the duo are 'amicably filing for divorce on Friday.' 

'After nine years together we have decided to end our marriage, however, our lifelong commitment to co-parenting will forever remain,' the statement said.

Wiley and Morelli tied the knot in 2017 and share a daughter, George Elizabeth, four. 

Morelli, who was a writer for Orange Is The New Black, has said that working on the series, which featured a same-sex love story, helped her come to terms with her sexuality. 

At the time she joined the staff, she had just married Stephen Basilone, a man.  

Morelli said writing the show, which featured a same-sex love story, helped her come out.  

'I realized I was gay in fall 2012, one of my first days on the set. It wasn't so much one thing, but the sum of many small details,' she wrote in a post for Identities.Mic in 2014.

'I went through it all on set: I fell in love with a woman, and I watched my life play out on screen,' she said. 

She divorced Basilone in 2014 and found love with Wiley. They reportedly started dating after the end of the marriage and became engaged in 2016. 

Speaking in Cosmopolitan UK's May Issue in 2021, Wiley admitted she was both a 'confidante' and 'therapist' for the screenwriter, who was struggling to come to terms with her sexuality while creating Orange Is The New Black.

Samira, who has been married to Lauren since 2017, explained: 'So much of falling in love with Lauren was her own coming-out story.

'For the first part of our relationship, it was more of a confidante kind of relationship where she was having lots of questions about who she was.

'A lot of the beginning was me being a therapist, sharing my own experiences. I came out much earlier than her – I was around 20.'

She went on: 'Lauren is the most lovely person, and [we were] able to have that relationship blossom from being scared of what was happening in her own marriage to being on the other side and [realising], "Oh, this is more than this, we actually really love each other."

'We built the relationship backwards – the trust and love was all there, and the other stuff came later. Which was a unique way to enter into it, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.'

The couple were wed in a ceremony officiated by Wiley's parents, and she said by going public with their romance they could help 'so many young girls and boys' see a queer couple in the spotlight.

Looking back, Samira said: 'It was the best day of my life. There’s always a question in our relationship about what things we are going to keep to ourselves and what things should be public.

'It was a hard decision. But then we felt like there are so many young girls and boys who don’t see queer couples on the covers of magazines in a wedding being proud of who they are, and having [their] parents officiate.

'Those are things that some queer people have never seen. And I want them to know it's a possibility. It’s a constant conversation.

'Why would we be doing this? And what creates the greater good? I want to be very intentional on what we’re putting out there and why I’m doing it. I’ve also been blessed with a partner who agrees.'