Private power couple! Michelle Williams and Thomas Kail‘s relationship got off to an unconventional start — but the duo are still going strong.
The couple crossed paths while working together on FX’s Fosse/Verdon, in which Williams starred as legendary dancer Gwen Verdon. The late Tony winner was married to Bob Fosse, played by Sam Rockwell in the acclaimed limited series, until his 1987 death.
When filming for the Emmy-nominated show began, Williams had recently exchanged vows with musician Phil Elverum, from whom she split in April 2019. Kail, for his part, was married to Broadway’s Angela Christian. However, sparks seemingly flew between the Dawson’s Creek alum and the Hamilton director on set.
Us Weekly confirmed in December 2019 that the pair were engaged — and that Williams was pregnant with their first child together. The Brokeback Mountain actress previously welcomed daughter Matilda in October 2005 with late partner Heath Ledger, from whom she split in 2007. Ledger died of an accidental overdose the following year.
Williams and the In the Heights director were “very happy and thrilled to be bringing a baby into the world,” a source told Us in January 2020, adding that the twosome “would like to be married” before the Montana native gave birth.
The couple stepped out for the 2020 Golden Globes that month, where the Greatest Showman star took home the trophy for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Fosse/Verdon. She gave Kail a sweet shout-out during her emotional acceptance speech.
“As women and as girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice,” she said on stage at the Beverly Hilton in California. “I’ve tried my very best to live a life of my own making and not just a series of events that happened to me, but one that I could stand back and look at and recognize my handwriting all over it. … I wouldn’t have been able to do this without employing a woman’s right to choose. To choose when to have my children and with whom. When I felt supported and able to balance our lives, knowing as all mothers know that the scales must and will tilt towards our children.”
She concluded, “Tommy and Matilda, I can’t wait to come home to you.”
The Shutter Island star went on to win Best Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series at the SAG Awards later that month, thanking Kail yet again. “Tom, I share this with you,” she said in January 2020. “Matilda, it is one thing to be completely honest as an actor, it is another to be completely honest as a human being. That is just who you are and how you live. You teach me by being you. I love you and I am coming home.”
Two months later, Us confirmed that the pair tied the knot. Their son was born in June 2020, and Williams announced her third pregnancy two years later.
“It’s totally joyous,” she told Variety in May 2022. “As the years go on, you sort of wonder what they might hold for you or not hold for you. It’s exciting to discover that something you want again and again, is available one more time. That good fortune is not lost on me or my family. … There’s nothing that makes you committed to a better world than raising a great kid.”
Scroll down to relive Williams’ private romance with Kail: