Jane Lynch and her wife, Dr. Lara Embry, are getting a divorce.
In a statement to PEOPLE , the 52-year-old Glee star explains, “Lara and I have decided to end our marriage. This has been a difficult decision for us as we care very deeply about one another.”
“We ask for privacy as we deal with this family matter.”
The couple met in 2009 at a fundraiser where Embry, 44, was being honored, and the couple announced their engagement in April 2010.
“I’m thrilled. Great, it’s really great. I never thought that this is something I wanted,” said Lynch. “It’s just the greatest thrill in the world to find somebody that you want to be with every day.”
They were married Memorial Day 2010 in a small ceremony in Sunderland, Massachusetts – one of the few states where gay marriage is recognized.
There were 19 guests at the wedding, including Embry’s daughter, 10-year-old Haden.
Lynch and Haden grew close, as the actress told POEPLE last March: “My greatest pleasure is Haden, my stepdaughter.”
“I am surprised how much love you feel and how you would do anything for your children.”
Lynch, who is currently keeping busy playing the role of Miss Hannigan in Annie: The Musical on Broadway, recently admitted that she and her soon-to-be ex-wife may have bitten off more than they could chew when they began their relationship:
“We’ve taken on everything in our first year of marriage,” she told US Weekly .
“Moving. I gained a daughter. We renovated a house – and writing a book. I mean, talk about learning about your wife!”
Embry recalled what it was like when the two first met: “I had stopped dating altogether. I mean, you have to sit down and think, ‘How do you trust your judgement?’ But I saw Jane walking in the lobby and I thought, ‘I’m supposed to follow her.’ It was like I’d been picked up in a fishing net.”
“I was supposed to go that way — and she was actually going the wrong way! But it was like the door was cracked. It was perfect.”
Best wishes to both Jane Lynch and Lara Embry during this time.
