“I look away, and I tell her ‘just imagine while I’m up there I’m holding two big bags of money,’ so that way it go down easier,” she quipped. She also opened up about her sometimes close-to-home comedy in 2016, tellingHarry Connick Jr.: “At first…it made [Alex] a little uneasy, but now she loves it. She gets upset if I don’t talk about her.” All jokes aside, Alex regularly supports her wife’s career milestones on social media. Most recently, when Sykes co-hosted the 2022 Academy Awards on March 27 alongside Amy Schumer and Regina Hall, Alex wrote on Instagram “I. Can. Not. Wait!” But who is Alex, how did she and Wanda meet and what’s their home life like? Keep reading for everything we know about Wanda Sykes’ wife, Alex Sykes—from how they met to their life with fraternal twins.
Who is Wanda Sykes’ wife, Alex Sykes?
Wanda Sykes is married to Alex Sykes, whose maiden name is Alex Niedbalski. Alex is from France, and the couple are raising their twins to speak both French and English. She’s shared videos trying to teach her wife French—like the time she recently (and hilariously) tried to teach Wanda how to pronounce sauvignonblanc. And because they don’t call it a romance language for nothing, on Valentine’s Day 2022, Wanda even said “I love you” to her wife in French. View this post on Instagram
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What does Alex Sykes do for a living?
While it’s unclear whether Alex Sykes has the same career today, when she met Wanda, she was a kitchen designer reportedly specializing in countertop sales. View this post on Instagram
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How did Wanda Sykes meet her wife, Alex Sykes?
Sykes first spotted Alex on a ferry ride to Fire Island and was instantly drawn to her; The Guardian reported that she noticed details down to the logo on the then stranger’s computer bag. “Something really said to me—like, audibly—‘Wow, that’s what you need, Wanda,’” Sykes told the publication, recalling that a friend advised her that if she didn’t want to be single anymore, she needed to stop telling stories about her kitchen remodel and instead start flirting. She didn’t take the advice to heart, however, and serendipitously, she soon told someone about her kitchen, who in turn introduced her to Alex—the stranger from the ferry, who also happened to sell granite countertops. While a kitchen remodel may have brought them together, culinary pursuits certainly aren’t central to their relationship these days. “[Alex] can’t cook, it’s no secret,” Sykes joked on TODAY about her wife’s cooking, adding that it’s because “she doesn’t enjoy cooking… her food tastes like a necessity.”
When did Wanda Sykes get married to Alex Sykes?
Sykes and Niedbalski tied the knot on October 25, 2008, walking down the aisle in matching wedding dresses. While they kept the ceremony private at the time, Sykes announced the news a month later when she came out publicly. The pair celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary in 2021. Alex marked the occasion with a sweet Instagram post, writing, “Guess what happened October 25, 2008?? Well… that’s when we said “WE DO”. 13 years later she loves me even more.”
Do Wanda Sykes and Alex Sykes have kids?
Alex gave birth to the couple’s fraternal twins, Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude, in 2009. The couple is raising their children to be bilingual, which sometimes causes trouble for Wanda, who’s not fluent in French. “I’m picking up little words, but I can tell when they’re about to pull something over on me because they speak fast and in a lower tone,” she said on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2017, recounting a time she thought they were going to brunch. “And they’re like ‘well, yeah,’ and next thing you know, I’m sitting in the middle of a lake on a canoe.” Kids weren’t always in the cards for Wanda, however, as she told NPR’s Fresh Air that she had “no vision of having kids at all” before meeting Alex. “And when I met my wife, she—that was her thing. Look. Right up front, I want kids. And I was like, well, can you give me, like, six months to think about it? And let’s just continue dating, and then we’ll see. And if I know it’s not for me, then, you know, we’ll just call this quits, and you go on and find somebody who wants to have kids.” She decided “even before” six months that she wanted to start a family, which she described as “the best decision I’ve ever made.” Sykes added that motherhood “takes you out of yourself” and is “just beautiful.”
How many times has Wanda Sykes been married?
Wanda was previously married to music producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998. “I wanted to getaway. Like: ‘God, there’s his stupid face, and he’s chewing. Ugh, does he have to breathe? Make him stop breathing,’” she told The New York Times in 2019 of her first marriage. “Now I’m in a great relationship, and I’m happy, so my wife’s chewing doesn’t annoy me." In 2008, Sykes came out publicly in an impromptu speech at an equality rally in Las Vegas. She was already out in her private life, as she had married Alex one month earlier. “When I came out, it wasn’t a planned thing at all. It was a national day of protest against the passage of Prop 8,” Sykes said in the documentary The Out List, which premiered in 2013, adding that she had “no regrets” about the spur of the moment speech. “I get to the hotel, turn on the TV and on the CNN scroll it says ‘Comedian Wanda Sykes: ‘I’m proud to be gay.’” Next, Who Is Brandi Carlile’s Wife, Catherine Shepherd? Get to Know the Woman Who Stole the Singer’s Heart
