Kerry Washington Recalls First Meeting Husband Nnamdi Asomugha and Using Code Names for Their Wedding

After 10 years of marriage, Kerry Washington is finally pulling back the curtain a bit more on her private marriage to pro football player Nnamdi Asomugha. 

During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show on Wednesday, the Scandal star delighted host Drew Barrymore with the fact that she and Nnamdi first met at Drew’s family’s namesake New York City theater, the Barrymore Theater. 

“I was doing my Broadway debut. It’s such a storied, important theater,” the actress pointed out. “It was my first time on Broadway and now I write about it in my book, so it has another fun legend to fill all the beautiful things that have happened at that theater.” In 2009, Washington originated the role of Susan in David Mamet’s Race and she and Nnamdi met backstage. 

Asked whether it was a “first sight thing” or “slow burn,” Kerry replied, “A little bit of both.”

“You talk to people like my parents who have been married for as long as they’ve been married, I think both are important. I think that first sight thing for me was really important and undeniable, but I think the slow burn is what keeps you going,” she explained. “We’ve been married 10 years now, so it’s like an immediate with a great slow burn that I hope will keep burning.”

Having typically guarded her personal life during her Hollywood career, Kerry kept details of their 2013 wedding private at the time, but has since shed light on their special day — and how they managed to keep it such a secret. For example, she shared in her memoir, Thicker Than Water, that her wedding vendors thought the event was a family reunion. 

As she recalled to Drew, “We had some fun with code names, so Jason Wu made my wedding gown… He was secretly custom-making this wedding gown for me, but we used to say that it was for the Moroccan premiere of Scandal.”

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