‘I Love the Drama’: Inside Sheryl Lee Ralph’s Vow Renewal in Philadelphia, Where the Abbott Elementary Star Wore an 80-Foot Shawl
You might think it’s over the top that Sheryl Lee Ralph wore an 80-foot shawl for her vow renewal to Pennsylvania state senator Vincent Hughes on the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But let Sheryl herself deliver the counterargument: “How could I walk up all of those steps without leaving a trail of something for everybody to look at?” she tells Vogue.
Several months ago, the Broadway legend—and Emmy Award-winning star of Abbott Elementary—decided to hold a recommitment ceremony with her husband to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. Originally, it was going to be an intimate event. But as the saying goes, the best-laid (and most laid-back) plans often go awry. It soon snowballed into a 250-guest affair held at the Philadelphia landmark. Don’t blame Sheryl, though: “My husband has turned into groomzilla, and his list is twice as long as mine,” she says, laughing.
Earlier this year, Sheryl and Vincent made headlines when she revealed that they don’t live together. They never have: When the couple wed in 2005, Sheryl was a working actor in Los Angeles with two young children. Vincent lived in—and represented—the Seventh Senatorial District of Pennsylvania. Neither could move without sacrificing their dreams or uprooting their families. “I wasn’t at a place where I was willing to give up my career, but I also didn’t want to give up having a stable relationship with the kind of man that I knew would be there for me,” she says. “When Beyoncé says, ‘You put my love on top,’ he put my love right on top, top, top.” So they settled on a nontraditional long-distance relationship. With plenty of honest communication—and some couples therapy—it worked.
They could have rewed inside the museum amid its Monets and Rubenses. Sheryl, however, chose to do so on the Rocky Steps, the nickname for the museum’s staircase that Sylvester Stallone famously ran up in the 1976 sports drama Rocky.
The decision was made partly because Sheryl wanted to make a grand entrance. But it was also because one of Rocky’s most famous lines—“It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”—has always resonated with Sheryl. “In marriage, we have so many things that happen in life,” she says. “People live. People die. Relationships change. You change. Your partner changes. Your family, your immediate family, your extended family—there are changes in life. And then there’s just the everyday of it. How are you able to get back up again and continue being together? I love that sentiment.”
Twenty-two ballerinas from Philadanco carried her shawl, made by costume designer Perry Meek, up the 72 steps. Vincent met her halfway as Diana Ross’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” played. Arm in arm, they walked to the top together, Sheryl in a pair of Christian Dior Tribales pumps.
“Sheryl was beautiful—is beautiful,” Vincent says of his wife. “Coming up those steps? She was just all of that and a bag of barbecue potato chips.”
Sheryl’s daughter, Coco, helped style her mother for the moment. “Fashion for me is absolute theater,” Sheryl says. “I come from the stage, and I love the drama of what you bring on the stage.” Instead of a veil—which felt more appropriate for a first wedding—they envisioned a shawl with an eye-popping length that only a veteran of the stage and screen could pull off. Meek, known for his work with Lady Gaga, Cher, and Janet Jackson, instantly understood the assignment. She wore it over a custom white dress by Monsoori Haute Couture. For accessories, Sheryl chose a diamond Cartier watch.
The couple said their own vows, which centered on the power of love as well as community, in front of guests including Al Roker, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania Austin Davis, and Sheryl’s sorority sisters from Delta Sigma Theta.
Afterward, it was time to head inside the museum for the reception, which included a dance by Philandco as well as a surprise performance from Sheryl herself, who sang “L-O-V-E” by Nat King Cole. (In addition to her award-winning turn in Abbott Elementary, she was famously nominated for a Tony playing Deena Jones in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls.)
In light of their milestone, do Vincent and Sheryl have any marriage advice? Sheryl offers the following: “Don’t give up on love. Don’t give up on a union. Don’t give up on a commitment to each other.”
Below, go inside Sheryl Lee Ralph and Senator Vincent Hughes’s vow renewal in Philadelphia.
Photo: Norman Cacho1/17
Photo: Norman Cacho2/17
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