Aryn Drake-Lee – Life Story of Jesse William’s Ex-Wife

Aryn Drake-Lee is a former real estate broker and ex-wife of actor, model and activist Jesse Williams. After being married for five years and in relationship for 13 years, they got divorced in 2017. The divorce was quite messy. Drake-Lee accused Williams of cheating, a charge that he vehemently denied. Both of them approached the press with their respective sides of the story. The new outlets subsequently published articles on every facet of their separation and divorce proceeding, from custody battles and spousal support to Williams’ alleged infidelity. After the divorce, Williams started dating actress Taylour Paige.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuxJpjA4uc8

Early Life & Family

Aryn Drake-Lee was born in either 1979 or 1980 in the United States of America. She studied at the French American International School in San Francisco, where she learned French and Spanish. At some point, she enrolled at Barnard College, a private women’s liberal arts college situated in New York City, New York.

Career

While Aryn Drake-Lee was still a student at Barnard College, she did an internship at Webb and Brooker real estate agency in Harlem, New York. She later joined Brown Harris Stevens, an agency located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She had a highly successful tenure there before joining William B. May, which is also a New-York-based agency.

She and Williams were involved in the development of Ebroji, an app that is marketed as the “first curated GIF keyboard”. Launched in 2016, it is compatible with both Apple and Android phones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNWHSS1aZJ0

Recently, she has begun hosting a podcast named ‘BBSARETRASH’ (Babies Are Trash) with her friend and fellow mother Trian Long-Smith.

In an interview with the People, Drake-Lee explained the podcast’s unique name, stating “It’s tongue in cheek in that when you are in the hard moments, that’s when you learn and that’s when you grow. We’re not over here trying to pretend like everything is cool and cookies and rainbows. That’s not at all what time it is.”

Aryn Drake-Lee’s Relationship with Jesse Williams

In various interviews, Jesse Williams has stated that he and Drake-Lee had been in a relationship for 13 years as of 2017. That means that the couple started dating around 2004. However, some sources, including the People magazine, state that they began dating prior to his big-screen debut in 2008’s The Sisterhood of the ‘Traveling Pants 2’. They became acquainted while they were both residing in New York. At the time, Williams was working as a teacher there. After he started landing regular acting gigs, the couple decided to move to California together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aA6aBtd1Q8

They exchanged wedding vows in a private ceremony in Los Angeles on September 1, 2012. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter whom they named Sadie, in December 2013. In October 2015, their son Maceo was born.

Aryn Drake-Lee’s Separation & Eventual Divorce from Jessie Williams

On April 11, 2017, Jesse Williams filed for divorce from Drake-Lee, asking for joint legal and physical custody their two children, Sadie and Maceo, in his petition. He also allegedly did not intend to pay spousal support. Both of them subsequently approached the press with their respective sides of the story. During his struggling days, it was Drake-Lee that supported him. Many of their friends felt that they were separating now because he wanted to date other women. There were allegations against Williams of cheating on Drake-Lee with actress Minka Kelly. In July 2017, he responded to these rumours on Jay-Z’s short film on Tidal named ‘Footnotes for 4:44’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-TZL_78A5w

“I was in a relationship 13 years, 13 real years, not 5 years, not 7 years—13 years,” Williams said. “All of a sudden [expletives] are writing think-pieces that I somehow threw away a 13-year relationship. Like, the most painful experience I’ve had in my life with a person I’ve loved with all of my heart–that I threw a person and my family in the trash because a girl I work with is cute.” However, a day after he made the statement, a person close to him told the media that he had indeed been dating Kelly for few months.

On 15 August 2017, Drake-Lee approached the court seeking sole custody of their children. In her petition, she mentioned his violent temper and requested the judge to prohibit his girlfriends from interacting with Sadie and Maceo. In September 2017, the court granted them joint custody of their children. E! News reported that the court had ordered Williams to give her $160,000 for temporary spousal support and pay her legal fees. As of July 2018, he was giving her monthly $100,000 in child and spousal support.