Quinta Brunson, the creator, producer, and star behind Abbott Elementary, has filed for divorce from husband Kevin Jay Anik, whom she married in October 2021.
Court documents that were filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, list the date of separation as “TBD.” The reason given for the breakup is “irreconcilable differences.” In the paperwork, Brunson says the two “entered into a Postnuptial Agreement which governs the disposition of their property” and asks that they abide by it. She also requests that each spouse pay for their own attorney’s fees.
The actress and Anik, who dated several years before marrying, don’t have children together.
Brunson has kept her relationship quiet, confirming it in her speech accepting the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series award at the 2022 Emmys, per PEOPLE. “In case I am not back up here again,” she said, “I have to thank my mom, dad, brothers and sisters, my cousins … my wonderful husband because he’s the most supportive man I’ve ever known and my incredible cast and show for helping me to make this show and make the pilot.”
Quinta Brunson and Kevin Jay Anik pictured in 2021. Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty
She told Oprah Winfrey in November 2022 that she appreciated that Anik allowed her to be her full self.
“To be 100 percent fully me requires a lot of stuff that a lot of men do not have time for,” Brunson said. While some partners had tried, they “realized there’s no dimming me.”
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She continued, “My husband, that’s what I mean by him being the biggest support, that there is no need to dim me at all. And that allows me to love him fully and be the person that I want to be, and am meant to be.”
Brunson said that the last place she would want to have to dim herself is her home, which she considers her “sanctuary.”
ABC show Abbott Elementary is currently in its fourth season. Brunson has said that the workplace comedy, which centers on her character Janine and her colleagues, was partly inspired by her mother, who was a teacher in Philadelphia.
