The Truth About Melissa Rauch's Marriage
Anyone who watched a certain gigantic sitcom that ran from 2007 to 2019 is surely accustomed to seeing Melissa Rauch act alongside her onscreen husband Howard Wolowitz. But in real life, "The Big Bang Theory" star has been married to a man named Winston Beigel since 2007, and their relationship began long before the rest of the world got to know her as the kooky microbiologist Bernadette. The two even jumped into show business together, and they have remained a strong team ever since.
"He is my best friend and the love of my life, in addition to being an incredible writing partner," Rauch once gushed to New Jersey Monthly. "The only thing I regret is not meeting him even sooner, as my life has just gotten better since he came into it." Want to know more about the TV actor and the behind-the-scenes creative's love story? Read on for an inside look at Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel's relationship over the years.
They began as creative partners
Before Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel ever were an item, they were both busy trying to earn their degrees from Marymount Manhattan College. Rauch was a college student working toward her acting degree by day and a stand-up comedian by night, and Beigel wanted more than anything to be a comedy writer.
As Rauch recalled to RogerEbert.com, when the two first crossed paths, the connection was solely creative. "We decided that we should write some sketches together," Rauch told the outlet. "Because we have a very similar sensibility and our favorite thing to do is make each other laugh." Reflecting on the genesis of their relationship, she said on the "At Home with Linda & Drew Scott" podcast, "We were barely, I mean barely, friends when we actually started writing together."
After they decided to become writing partners, Rauch and Beigel started spending a lot of time together, which is always a quick way to figure out if you are compatible or not. "That was a great training ground for our relationship," Rauch said to RogerEbert.com. "If we could figure out a script together in these close quarters and not kill each other, then we're golden, we're okay, at least for now."
They cowrote Melissa Rauch's one-woman show
Shortly after graduating from college, Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel were working on a script about growing up and entering into adulthood. However, it wasn't totally clicking into place.
Luckily, inspiration hit one historic evening. "We saw Jenna Bush speaking at the Republican National Convention on TV," Rauch explained on the podcast "At Home with Linda & Drew Scott." "She was about the same age as us, and we got the idea to, sort of, combine a fictional story about her with [our idea]." It was then that the duo's one-woman show "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush" was born. Rauch took on the leading role and began performing it all over New York City in 2005. "That was, sort of, our entrance into the world of professional writing," Rauch told SidewalksTV.com.
Their show generated a good deal of buzz. AsBroadwayWorld noted, "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush" was a hit at NYC's Fringe festival in 2005, and outlets like New York magazine and The New York Times praised Rauch's performance.
They love to go to Disneyland together
After finding success in the theater world, Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel decided to pack their bags and leave the Big Apple for Los Angeles. There, they learned that the entertainment capital had a much different audience than they expected. "We did a showcase of ['Miss Education']," Rauch told Backstage. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. "Not a lot of people showed up because not a lot of people see theater in L.A. — so that was another lesson," she admitted.
Over the next few months, both Rauch and Beigel had trouble booking any gigs. To lift their spirits, the couple decided to go where anybody feeling blue should: the happiest place on earth. "When I was out of work when I first moved to L.A., one of the first things my husband and I did was buy season's passes to Disney," Rauch said in Esquire. "And whenever I was bummed out about work, we would go to Space Mountain, and it was like a physical injection of anti-depressants." Not a bad pick-me-up.
Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel have two kids
Before "The Big Bang Theory" came to an end, Bernadette became a mom, as did Melissa Rauch. The actor and husband Winston Beigel are the proud parents of two children. Yet, becoming parents wasn't an easy process for either of them. "I will never take for granted the difficult road it took to get here," Rauch wrote on Instagram.
Upon announcing the birth of their daughter Sadie in 2017, Rauch opened up about her first pregnancy in hopes of helping other women who had been through pregnancy loss. "The miscarriage I experienced was one of the most profound sorrows I have ever felt in my life," the actor wrote in an essay for Glamour.
When Rauch and Beigel found out they were expecting a son in 2020, they didn't anticipate another difficult journey. "My husband had to stay home with our daughter since our original plan of having family come to town — as well as our backup plans — were no longer options due to COVID-19," Rauch wrote. Beigel was able to be by her side virtually as they welcomed their son Brooks into the world.
They are big fans of the Olympics
If the Winter Games or the Summer Games are happening, it is probably safe to assume Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel are tuning in. "My husband and I love watching the Olympics," the sitcom star shared during an interview with Hypable.
Rauch told the outlet that she and her husband, like so many viewers across the globe, make a point to follow what is arguably the most popular event. "I was a huge gymnastics fan but had no gymnastics ability whatsoever," the actor admitted. Understandably, she has always been in awe of the serious skills that these athletic men and women take to the mat during every four years at the Olympics.
That said, Rauch and Beigel's love for the sport doesn't go on hiatus every four years. "We actually got season passes to the UCLA gymnastics tournament," Rauch told RogerEbert.com. It was also great research for when Rauch tackled the role of an Olympic gymnast in "The Bronze," a 2015 sports comedy she cowrote with Beigel.
They wanted to make The Bronze their way
When Melissa Rauch was no longer getting offers for roles that she wanted, she and her husband decided to write them. "I sort of have always looked towards creating my own material as a way of writing myself out of a box or not having to wait on Hollywood or someone else to give me a chance to do something," Rauch explained during an interview with SidewalksTV.com.
"The Big Bang Theory" actor and Winston Beigel took their love of the Olympics and turned it into their first screenplay called "The Bronze," a feature film about a bronze medalist gymnast whose star has faded despite her efforts. Though they were set on Rauch portraying the main character, she told Backstage that studios wanted a bigger star to play the lead. Rather than compromise their vision, the couple began production using their own credit cards.
Through all the challenges of filming "The Bronze," being together was what was most important to Rauch and Beigel. "One of my favorite things in life has always been writing with Winston," Rauch told the Los Angeles Times. "So getting to actually see it come to fruition is a dream come true."