Damon Wayans Sr. Says Making “My Wife and Kids” While Going Through a Divorce Made Him 'Relive the Beauty' of Marriage (Exclusive)
Damon Wayans Sr. Says Making “My Wife and Kids” While Going Through a Divorce Made Him 'Relive the Beauty' of Marriage (Exclusive)
Meredith WilshereSat, May 2, 2026 at 12:59 PM UTC
0
Damon Wayans Sr. on 'My Wife and Kids'Credit: Disney+ -
Damon Wayans Sr. says creating My Wife and Kids helped him process his divorce and celebrate family life
The cast, including Tisha Campbell, bonded deeply on set and often improvised scenes together
Wayans reflects on the show’s lasting impact as it celebrates 25 years and streams on Hulu
For Damon Wayans Sr., My Wife and Kids was a way for him to relive the joys of marriage.
The actor, 65, tells PEOPLE he wanted to make something that reflected the fun parts of relationships since he was going through a divorce while creating the show.
“I got a chance to relive the beauty of being married, the fun of having a family and having a wife, and that's why I named it My Wife and Kids, because I wanted to celebrate it as opposed to give a very bitter side of the breakup,” Wayans says.
Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell in 'My Wife and Kids'Credit: ABC/DANNY FELD
He shares that it was “very medicinal, almost, to me it helped me a lot.”
Wayans was married to Lisa Thorner from 1984 to 2000. They share four children, Damon Wayans Jr., Michael Wayans, Cara Mia Wayans and Kyla Wayans.
On the cast, which included Tisha Campbell, George Gore II, Parker McKenna Posey, Jennifer Freeman, and Noah Gray-Cabey, he says, “I love all of them.”
“We just had so much fun and it's interesting when you go to a job and you love everybody. So there wasn't like a time that we had to get out. Nobody wanted to leave," he shares. "We come in early and we stay late and most of the time we're there just laughing and enjoying each other's company and then there is work, then we would improvise within the scenes.”
Tisha Campbell and Damon Wayans in 'My Wife and Kids'Credit: Cinematic / Alamy Stock Photo
When working with Campbell, who played his wife in the show, the In Living Color actor shares, “We never really cared about the words, it's just the intent, and ‘I wanna see the love in your eyes.’ ”
Advertisement
“When we're in this scene, I need to see the love in your eyes and the trust that we have between each other. That's a family,” he adds.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Wayans Sr. emphasizes how "crazy" it is that the beloved sitcom is "still on TV somewhere, and that people still love it" decades later.
“If I go to Paris or Brazil, they call me Michael Kyle and they won't call me anything else but Michael Kyle and they love it," he shares. "They tell me they grew up on it and here, in the States, that people love it and they act like it just came on."
Tisha Campbell and Damon Wayans in 'My Wife and Kids'Credit: Disney+
The actor notes he sometimes has to rewatch episodes of the show, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in March 2026, as he often forgets some of the plotlines fans bring up.
“For me, I forgot, my daughter sent me something that we did an episode and I found myself laughing and then I said, ‘I don't remember ever shooting that,’ ” Wayans confesses.
“It's just nice to have because we did 125 episodes, so I don't remember any of them really, and then I saw them and I rediscovered the joy that I had.”
My Wife and Kids is now streaming on Hulu.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
