Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathé met when they were both students at Stanford University, studying their craft. They have both gone on to big success in Hollywood and have been at one another’s side the whole time. After marrying in 2006, they went on to have two sons, Andrew and Amaré.
Here’s the full relationship timeline of this loving and devoted couple.
1990s
Brown and Bathé met late in the last century, while they were both performing in the freshman show at Stanford. Bathé shared her “first memory” of Brown with Parade.
“I saw his audition for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. And I was riveted,” she said. “I had never seen anybody so young do what he was doing. I was floored.”
They started dating but were on-and-off through college, then broke up after graduating in 1998. But they were drawn back together, though Brown said he had to chase her.
In an interview on The Talk, Brown said, “We broke up for three and a half years before we came back into each other’s lives. She was on the treadmill working out, and I had this epiphany, ‘I have to go tell this woman she’s the love of my life.’”
“I go to her apartment, I tell her, and she’s like, ‘Well, I’m working out right now,’ and I was like, ‘No, I can see that—I’ll just talk to you while you’re on the treadmill,’ and she’s like, ‘Well, I feel like going outside. So I’m gonna go on a run,’” he continued. “So I’m like dressed [in a suit], and she starts running through Koreatown, and I start running along with her. Brother had to work, but it was well-worth while.”
2006
The couple eloped!
2007
A year after officially getting hitched, they had a larger wedding ceremony with family and friends. In 2023, the First Wives Club star shared more about her big day with Brown.
“The best thing about it was the food,” she said. “Because, you know, OK look, can I just say sometimes you go to weddings, and you get the winner-winner chicken dinner and you’re like, ‘I pay. OK, it’s fine.’ But I wanted people to remember their experience—their culinary experience. So I was happy about that. The food was good.”
November 2009
Though they’d been together for over a decade, they didn’t walk their first red carpet until 2009, attending a benefit for NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Brown earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Tisch.
2011
In 2011, the couple welcomed their first child, a boy named Andrew. They never shared their children’s birth dates, but in 2017, Brown stated after an episode of This Is Us in which his character Randall and Beth’s first child is born at home that he and Bathé experienced the same thing.
“An unexpected home delivery is something my wife and I went through ourselves with our first born, so this was round 2 for me!” he wrote on Twitter at the time.
2012
In 2012, Bathé was cast in a recurring role on Army Wives and was able to perform across from her husband.
2015
Their second child, Amaré, was born in 2015. Brown joined Instagram soon after and shared a shot of the infant bundled against his chest. He wrote in the caption, “1st post. 2nd child. All good! #imoninstagram”
2016
Bathé joined another of Brown’s shows, cast in a recurring role on This Is Us as Yvette, the mother of one of Randall’s friends.
September 2016
The couple attended the 2016 Emmys, where Brown won for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or movie for his playing Christopher Darden in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
October 2016
The whole family, boys included, attended the GOOD+ Foundation’s 1st Annual Halloween Bash.
January 2017
While walking the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the couple stopped to share a kiss.
August 2017
Brown celebrated their 11-year anniversary with a sweet post on Instagram, writing, “Don’t know what I’d do without you, Bird. Love ya lots!”
September 2017
In 2017, Brown won another Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for his role on This Is Us. They shared a sweet moment in the audience before he headed up on stage to make his acceptance speech.
January 2018
Continuing his awards sweep, Brown won outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series for This Is Us at the Screen Actors Guild Award. They again kissed when his name was called.
January 2018
The pair brought their son Andrew to the premiere of Brown’s film Black Panther.
August 2019
Andrew also accompanied them to the release of The Angry Birds Movie 2.
November 2019
Both the kids were big enough to enjoy the premiere of Frozen 2. Brown shared a cute picture from the red carpet, writing, “Missing these three guys so much right now. But this is honestly one of my favorite pictures of my family. Amaré’s face kinda clinches it for me!”
![premiere of disney's frozen 2 arrivals](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/ryan-michelle-bathe-and-sterling-k-brown-attend-the-news-photo-1711557586.jpg?resize=980:* "Premiere Of Disney's "Frozen 2" - Arrivals")
September 2020
During lockdown, Brown and Bathé joined in on “Zoom Where It Happens,” a live table read presented by Black women artists organizing around voting rights. They read parts from the Friends’ episode “The One Where No One’s Ready.” Bathé played Rachel, and Brown was naturally Ross.
October 2021
Brown bought his sons to a baseball game, calling them his “team.”
February 2022
The couple presented on stage at the 51st NAACP Image Awards.
August 2022
In an interview with Jemele Hill on the Unbothered podcast, Brown discussed how the couple handle filming intimate scenes in a way that makes them both comfortable.
“You introduce them to your wife immediately,” he said. “As long as Ryan knows them, and she understands that they have respect for the union, then she’s able to be like, ‘Alright bro, go do your thing. I know nothing crazy is going on besides the work.’”
He also joked about being “friendzoned” by his wife.
April 2023
Bathé celebrated Brown’s 47th birthday with a sweet message on Instagram, writing, “You are my dearest love, my dearest friend, my dearest companion in this beautiful and wild ride called life. Happy Birthday to you. Thank you for having my back, and being there for me and Andrew and Amaré! We love you to the moon, to the windows, to the walls.”
June 2023
On Father’s Day, she wrote another tribute to him, sharing a video on Instagram of Brown playing with the kids on the beach.
“Happy Father’s Day @sterlingkbrown,” she wrote in the caption. “You are forever in our corner. Our children have your guidance and protection, even when they don’t know it. It’s a beautiful thing. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!”
That month, she also shared some more details of her life with Brown in an interview, discussing how they approach being in Hollywood together.
“This is what he loves to do, but he is not of it. He will be the first person to be like, ‘Get them sliders. Let’s go home,’” she said. “But there’s a picture of us somewhere where we’re huddled in a corner eating sliders on our way home. But you know, he loves it, and he loves being around people. But he’s also like, he doesn’t have to be. He doesn’t have FOMO. He’s the opposite of FOMO.”
March 2024
The pair attended the 2024 Oscars, with Bathé wearing a gorgeous white Dior gown, and Brown in a classic tuxedo.
She changed into red for the Vanity Fair Oscar party.
That same month, they presented together again at the 55th NAACP Image Awards.
