OITNB star Samira Wiley’s engagement story is so beautiful it’ll make you cry
Orange is the New Black star Samira Wiley has opened up about how she fell in love with her fiancé, Lauren Morelli, and about how the pair got engaged.
Talking to Out, Wiley spoke about how the two hit it off when working on the set of the hit Netflix original.
Morelli who was a writer for the show, grew close to Wiley who played Poussey Washington, when she was tasked for making up a rap.
Wiley said: “Lauren is an amazing rapper, but I kept coming up with questions to find a way to talk to her — bullshit like “I don’t know if I’d rhyme this word with this word.
“Then we were sitting in the prison cafeteria for a scene, eating some stale noodles, and like a kindergartner, I came and put a noodle on her ear — anything to see her smile,” says Wiley.
Morelli, who was in a marriage with a man when she initially met Wiley, felt a “magnetic” spark between the two.
She questioned her sexuality, but was open with her then husband from the get go.
“I had started questioning my sexuality as a result of being in the writers’ room and talking about all the themes on the show. I was very open with my husband and told him. That turned into a year of going to couples therapy.
“I had a few queer women around me, but not many I could talk to about such a huge, vulnerable thing. Samira became my outlet, and through that process I fell in love with her. Being with her felt too good to be true,’ Morelli says.
Morelli separated from her husband and began dating Wiley.
Wiley explained that as the two developed, she was scared to say “I love you” and so, she said a “pussy” version and said “I heart you,” which actually ended up in one of Lauren’s Orange scripts.
“I believe Alex says it to Piper. It felt safer than using the L word. It’s hard to step out on that limb,’ Wiley explained.
The couple were together for three years by the time Morelli proposed. The pair went on holiday to Palm Springs where Morelli surprised her, and Wiley couldn’t believe it.
“Lauren has been married before, so I wanted her to tell me she was ready, her to be the one to propose. I didn’t know she was as ready as she was. I was completely shocked,” explained Wiley.
“She was hyperventilating. I thought, Oh, this is not good. This has gone too far,” added Morelli. “She was very clear she’d wait for me to be ready, so to give her something I knew she wanted so much was incredible. It was the most magical day of my life.”
