joel mchale

Who is Joel McHale married to? Get the details

The comedian and actor has been married for 25 years

TV & Film Writer
February 10, 2021

Joel McHale and his wife Sarah Williams have managed to master the art of a low-profile relationship away from the cameras. While the couple have been firmly by each other’s sides since the mid-’90s, you won't see these two piling on the PDA.

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Want to know more about the Celebrity Wheel of Fortune star’s mysterious spouse? Keep reading for a timeline of the couple’s 25-year relationship….

Joel is taking on the Celebrity Wheel of Fortune this week

Joel, 49, and Sarah, 50, first met when the comedian and actor was a fresh-faced graduate from the University of Washington. It was love at first sight for Joel who asked Sarah out on a date through a mutual friend. 

“I called her friend and asked if I could ask her out. She was like, ‘I’ll ask, but fat chance, buddy,’” he told Redbook in 2011. “But my wife took the chance. I'm sure she was like, 'There's no one else around, so I might as well.'"

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The couple dated for a year before exchanging vows in July 1996 surrounded by friends and family. Last year, Sarah shared a series of gorgeous snaps from the ceremony as she took to Instagram to celebrate 24 years of marriage with the Community actor. 

Joel met wife Sarah back in 1995

24 years ago @joelmchale and I did this. We were young and in love and probably naive, but I am so thankful we found each other and keep choosing each other. I love you!” she wrote, adding that her outfit was almost entirely vintage. While the dress was her mother’s own wedding gown from 1967, the necklace she wore belonged to her late grandmother.

In 2005, the couple welcomed their first child together, a son named Edward, who suffered health problems as an infant and had to undergo open-heart surgery. Joel opened up about the terrifying ordeal to WedMD. 

Sarah shared this throwback to their wedding day last year

“He was born with two large holes in his heart. It was horrific; we couldn’t believe it. But we just started dealing with it. There’s nothing else you can do but proceed,” he said. “It was a dark tunnel, but we came out the other end. For other parents, it’s a tunnel that never ends.”

A year before Joel’s breakout role in the sitcom Community, Sarah gave birth to another son, Isaac. Sarah also suffered from a miscarriage at one point, something that Joel says television personality Dr Drew Pinsky, helped them through. Joel opened up about the sad occurrence, and how the couple are "forever in debt" to the Loveline presenter, in 2018. 

Joel and Sarah are proud parents to two sons

“This is very personal, but my wife had a miscarriage and we really consulted with him a lot,” he told US Weekly. “It was so strange and wonderful that this very famous TV doctor was like, ‘Yeah, what’s going on?’ We’re forever in debt to that man.”

Today, the couple live with their now-teenage sons in Hollywood Hills, California along with three adorable dogs.

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