Ali Wong took her divorce in strides. In her new comedy special Single Lady, she talks about the ups and downs of post-divorce and how she still considers her ex-husband Justin Hakuta her “best friend” despite their split.
“I didn’t expect the news of my divorce to be so widespread and public,” the Always Be My Maybe star said about announcing the news of her marriage ending. “I felt really embarrassed and ashamed, but I didn’t realize that all of these media outlets were acting like a bat signal letting all potentially interested men know. I’ve never been pursued this much in my life.”
Related: Bill Hader’s Dating History Included Several Other Comedians
Ali Wong met her husband Justin Hakuta at a wedding reception while he was at Harvard in 2010. They dated for a couple of years and got married in San Francisco on November 27, 2014. They later welcomed two daughters: Mari, born in 2015, and Nikki, born in 2017—the latter she was pregnant in the Netflix special Baby Cobra. Justin quit his job as a tech executive and became Ali’s tour manager.
Why did Ali Wong and Justin Hakuta divorce?
In their divorce filing, Ali and Justin cited “irreconcilable differences” as their reason for divorce. “It’s amicable and they will continue to co-parent lovingly,” a source told People at the time. Though they separated in 2022, the comedian filed for divorce in December 2023.
In her 2022 special Don Wong, the Beef actress made jokes about thinking about cheating on her husband “every five minutes” adding that she’s “going through a mid-life crisis.” She said in her standup special, “If you’re romantically involved with somebody and then all of the sudden that somebody reveals a personality trait that you don’t like, you could just leave, move to another city and never see their stupid face again. Because you didn’t make a promise in front of your grandma and all of your co-workers, and ask your friends to buy you an Instant Pot. You didn’t fuse your DNA to create human life that will forever ask you, ‘Where’s Daddy?’”
Though the two have split romantically, they’re still in each other’s lives platonically. “We’re really, really close; we’re best friends. We’ve been through so much together. It’s a very unconventional divorce, the comedian told The Hollywood Reporter. Justin still serves as her touring manager and they travel together with their daughters who they co-parent. She still runs by jokes for him and she told The Cut, “he still to this day has ultimate veto power, because my relationship with him even post-divorce is more important than a two-minute bit.”
Who is Ali Wong dating now?
Ali Wong is dating fellow comedian Bill Hader, which many fans would know after they walked several red carpets together—including when Ali won a Golden Globe for Beef. The couple met at a couple of dinners before they became official. In Single Lady, Ali recounted that she received plenty of flowers from Bill Hader when he found out about the news of her divorce. “Hey, Ali. I just happened to hear the news of your divorce today, and I gotta tell you…I’m excited,” she recalls him saying. “I am, Ali, because, look, I have had a crush on you forever, and I actually told my best friend years ago that you were my dream girl. And I know this sounds crazy, but, uh, I want you to be my girlfriend.” But Ali had already downloaded and paid for a dating app. “And I was like, ‘I just paid $250. You seem really nice, but I gotta get my money’s worth.”
She introduced her boyfriend at the end of her Single Lady run at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles in May 2024. “I did fall in love again. Some of you might know who the guy is. And it just so happens to be the man who sent me all of those flowers in Europe.” Hader also revealed that he was the person who poured tea into the rice bowl. “And when I did that, the look on Ali’s face was a mixture of embarrassment and she was so stoked,” he said. “She had this look on her face like, ‘You’re in the act, motherfucker.’” When they both exited the stage, Bill Hader also told the crowd, “All I have to say is, Ali Wong is off the market.”
