Who Is Hallmark Star Ashley Williams Married To In Real Life?

With over 20 Hallmark movie credits under her belt, Ashley Williams is practically a rom-com veteran at this point. She's been Hallmark's most lovable leading lady in a number of heartwarming films, including several Christmas movies that totally made us swoon—and her spark with Paul Campbell in Hallmark's "Falling Together" had us head over heels. Even though her acting career has required her to fall in love many times, Williams has only one true love in real life: her husband, Neal Dodson. The two lovebirds have been married for nearly two decades after tying the knot in 2011, and they also share two children: sons Gus and Odie Sal.

Dodson, who hails from Pennsylvania, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama in 2000. He first met Williams in the office of acting coach Warner Loughlin in 2003, when she was acting on the sitcom "Good Morning, Miami" and he was working as an assistant. "He started handing me plays he thought I'd like," Williams recalled in a 2019 Instagram post. "I was delighted. He talked a lot ... but everything he said was interesting, funny, and somehow rang true or resonated in me the way only the sound of a cello ever had before." 

Dodson and Williams dated for several years before getting engaged on Thanksgiving Day in 2009. They said their vows less than two years later in a quiet Nashville ceremony in May 2011. "He grounds me," Williams gushed in an interview with People at the time. "He allows me to laugh at myself and calms me down. He puts things in perspective."

Throughout her career as a Hallmark star, Ashley Williams has been lucky enough to work alongside her producer husband, Neal Dodson. The co-founder of Before the Door Pictures, Dodson has produced a number of impressive projects, including several Hallmark movies starring Williams. In 2021, Dodson served as an executive producer on the 2-part Hallmark movie series "Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday" and "Sister Swap: Christmas in the City." Both films co-starred Williams' real-life sister, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, who is the reason that Ashley Williams has a very famous brother-in-law.

At the time of the second movie's release, Williams took to Instagram to give her husband a shoutout for his work on the project, calling Dodson "the greatest producer I've ever worked with, and the man that makes everything possible." Sharing a sweet photo of the couple cuddling up to one another on set in the midst of a scenic winter landscape, Williams added to her hubby, "This movie was a true labor of love, and would not have happened without Neal Dodson. Thank you for your mind, your heart, your care, your everything, always." In addition to the "Sister Swap" movies, Dodson is also credited as an executive producer on more of Williams' recent Hallmark films, including 2024's "Falling Together" and 2026's "Much About Love."