Talented, handsome, charming, and how could we forget those blue eyes?
Jesse Williams) definitely charmed his way into our hearts as Dr. Jackson Avery in Grey's
Anatomy.
Unfortunately, while his career has boomed over the last decade, his personal life has
taken more of a rocky turn.
A failed marriage led to an incredibly messy divorce, and rumors of cheating followed shortly
after.
The actor also recently split from his girlfriend of three years.
So what's really been going on behind the closed doors of Jesse's messy love life?
While Jesse's divorce from his ex-wife, Aryn Drake-Lee), was only finalized two years ago;
they initially split around 2017.
We'll get into all the nitty-gritty of his divorce a little later in the video, but first,
we want to speak about his more recent split from his girlfriend, Taylour Paige).
Following his divorce, the actor dated a couple of women, including SportsNet New York Anchor
Taylor Rooks and Minka Kelly.
However, both those relationships were pretty short-lived.
It wasn't until he met Taylour that Jesse finally felt he had met a woman he could have
a real relationship with.
Paige, most known for her role on the VH1 dance drama Hit The Floor, and Williams were
first linked at the beginning of 2019 after spending some time together at the Sundance
Film Festival.
In an exclusive interview with GQ, both Jesse and Taylour spoke about how they first met
at the Emmy's party the year before, and they weren't shy about any of the details.
Paige confessed that she even had a premonition that Jessie would come into her life the night
before meeting at the Emmy's party in 2018.
"I had a dream that I was sleeping next to him on the night before we met."
The following day at the party, Paige said of their meeting, "It was just like, 'There
he is.'
Almost like, 'Where have you been?'"
And Jesse's feelings weren't far off from Taylour's either.
He explained that he was in the middle of a conversation with a close friend when she
walked by, and "… Everything got quiet.
I stopped that conversation and said, 'I'll be right back.'
I just zoomed in on her.
The rest of the night, we were this close to each other, talking, laughing, dancing,
and ended up together in conversation until six in the morning,"
Clearly, they hit things off immediately and were practically inseparable from the moment
that they laid eyes on one another.
In their interview, they also explained that their differences also made them even more
interested in getting to know each other more.
Jesse explained that Taylour is a very spiritual person.
Her calm energy and deep soul are the complete opposite of his personality; he didn't know
at the time how much he needed her in his life.
He added, "We came from very different worlds.
Taylour is very feminine and into spiritual planes, astrology.
I'm very practical, fact-based, and masculine.
I was having a wild, unfamiliar, uncomfortable experience because it was all happening in
a very spiritual way – a way that's not how I usually arrange things in my life,"
Jesse explained.
But, after meeting Taylour, he realized that he might need to loosen up a little bit and
trust the universe a little bit more.
The couple dated for about the next three years and often shared snippets of themselves
together on social media.
Unfortunately, their very romantic meet-cute was all too good to be true.
The pair split in 2022, and while they were very open about how they met, they remained
tight-lipped about the reason for their split.
So fans were left in the dark about why things didn't work out between them.
Naturally, that only left the room to speculate as to why they broke up … There were some
that accused Taylour of cheating since it didn't take a long time for her to get over
the breakup and move on to dating someone else.
But we don't really know anything for sure.
It seems that Jesse is just an unlucky guy when it comes to love.
Back when he was initially getting divorced from his ex-wife, Aryn Drake-Lee, whispers
of an affair were allegedly the cause for their split too.
The nasty rumors followed him after his heartbreaking divorce, even after he tried to start a new
relationship with Minka Kelly.
She was the first person he dated publicly after his divorce from Aryn.
Since their relationship began just a few months after his divorce, a lot of people
speculated that Jesse had cheated on his ex-wife with Minka.
When Minka and Jesse shared snaps of themselves together on social media, a lot of the comments
referred to her as being a homewrecker.
One of their fans wrote something on Instagram that got into Minka's nerves.
The post said, "I hope the cheating rumors aren't true.
It would be disappointing,"
Minka then responded sharply with, "They're not.
I hate for you to be disappointed.
Glad I could clear that up for you.
Now, fuck off."
The cheating rumors took a toll on Jesse too.
In an appearance on JAY-Z's mini-documentary, Footnotes for 4:44, the actor explained his
fury towards people making allegations about his life that were far from the truth.
He said, "I was in a relationship.
13 years.
13 real years, not five years, not seven years, 13 years, and all of a sudden mother-fuckers
are writing think-pieces that I somehow threw a 13-year relationship … and my family in
the trash because a girl I work with is cute."
He also added that going through his divorce was the "most painful experience" he's had
in his life.
And when he was with his ex-wife, he loved her with all of his heart.
Perhaps it was all the negativity that surrounded their relationship that caused things not
to work out.
Because Jesse and Minka split after just a few months of dating, it must have been a
painful thing to have to go through another public breakup, especially since it was his
first relationship post-divorce.
Okay, we know you want to get all the divorce details, so let's get into it.
There are a lot of things that happened between Jesse and his ex-wife, Aryn.
While they were only married for about five years, they were actually together for almost
fifteen years.
Aryn and Jesse met when he was still a teacher in New York.
While Jesse had some transitions in his career, Aryn always worked as a real estate broker.
So, while Jesse was trying to make a name for himself as an actor, Aryn was the main
breadwinner and supported him as much as she could in his career.
After they were married in 2012, they welcomed two children together.
A daughter Sadie, in 2013, and a son Maceo two years later.
The couple eventually filed for divorce in 2017, which is pretty much when the rumors
of an affair started to make their way into the media.
At first, both Jesse and Aryn attempted to keep things private with regard to the divorce
and handle things as amicably as they could.
But unfortunately, the divorce process soon turned nasty.
In 2019, Aryn opened up to People about the split from Jesse for the first time, sharing,
"When the divorce process started I had two nursing babies, and I am the one that ran
our household for the 14-and-a-half years that he and I were together in the same house."
She confessed that she left her own career in New York for their family to be able to
move to California for Jesse's career.
She felt like she was the one holding Everything together for her husband and their kids and
that she wasn't allowed any room for herself.
Perhaps the real reason for their split was that Aryn felt like she had lost herself in
their marriage because she had given so much of her time and energy to Jesse.
She also spoke about how she's been open about Everything with their children and has tried
not to shelter them from the divorce proceedings.
She explained, "I talk to them on their level.
It's also okay for the children to see me crying, to see that I'm having a hard day
today.
Because that lets them know that when they have those hard days, there's also room for
that."
Despite all the rumors and speculations around their divorce, neither confirmed and addressed
it publicly.
They tried so hard to keep matters to themselves, but the "bad blood" between them throughout
their custody couldn't be ignored.
According to reports, Jesse and Aryn currently have legal and joint custody, but they were
ordered to attend "high conflict" parenting classes called 'Between Two Parents' because
of how messy their divorce process was going.
The pair began arguing over custody of their two children, with Williams alleging that
Drake-Lee was restricting his access to them.
In response, Aryn filed for sole physical and legal custody, citing Williams' unpredictable
work schedule and claiming that she was the primary parental figure.
She alleged in court, "Jesse would 'join in' when he was available and home, but he rarely
took care of the children without my or the nanny's help and presence."
Aryn also claimed that "Jesse became distant, secretive and was home, less and less, traveling
for unexplained reasons while telling the kids, 'Daddy is at work.'"
Williams' rep denied the allegations, claiming that he has been "working tirelessly to maintain
his bond" with his kids.
Williams was ordered to pay Drake-Lee $40,000 in child support monthly – as well as over
$100,000 in spousal support.
However, the couple allegedly had no prenuptial agreement, which made the splitting of finances
even more complicated.
After Jesse left Grey's Anatomy, he claimed he could no longer afford the over $140 000
in child and spousal support and demanded to pay less.
As far as we understand, his support payments were later reduced to $40 000, with the agreement
that he was no longer responsible for paying spousal support.
Unfortunately, even though the divorce was finalized back in 2020, the couple is still
battling over the custody of their kids.
Williams accused his ex-wife of "repeated violation of court orders" and "erratic, gatekeeping
behavior" in legal documents.
He continued by claiming that Drake-Lee had "become increasingly controlling and restrictive"
of his time with their children and alleged that she had "manic outbursts" in front of
the children.
Williams also claimed that Drake-Lee screamed at him and "yanked Sadie from my arms like
a rag doll."
It's always heartbreaking to see couples battle things out in a divorce.
Parting ways is never an easy decision to make, and we can't imagine how tough it must
have been on their children too.
We only hope that they're able to finally put things to rest and move on to find happiness
in their lives because that's what everyone deserves.
Thanks for watching our video, Juicers!
Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and take a look at some of our other videos to
be inspired by Hollywood's most epic love stories.