‘black-ish’ Creator Kenya Barris & Wife Divorce After 20 Years

Dr. Rainbow Barris and Kenya Barris 

‘black-ish’ Creator Kenya Barris & Wife Divorce After 20 Years

The creator of ABC’s black-ish, Kenya Barris, has filed for divorce from his wife, Dr. Rania “Rainbow” Barris. 

The two have been married for 20 years.

Rainbow and Kenya Barris

Kenya filed the documents in an L.A. Superior Court Friday, which also marked his 45th birthday. According to reports, he also filed in 2014, the same year black-ish premiered, but later withdrew.

Interestingly enough, Dr. Barris was the inspiration behind the matriarch in black-ish, Rainbow Johnson, played by Tracee Ellis Ross. Just like Ross’s character, Rania is an anesthesiologist and a mother of a handful of children. In the show, Rainbow has five children while in reality, Rania has six.

Raina has said in the past that there are direct similarities between her life and the show, like when Rainbow Johnson suffered postpartum depression after she and her on-screen husband Dre Johnson (played by Anthony Anderson) welcomed their fifth child. She also said their marital woes in the past was a factor of why Rainbow and Dre nearly got divorced on the series.

She previously said,

 “Dre and Bow have never been immune to tough situations, just like marriages in real life, including my own. We want to shine a light on the challenges a relationship can face and the necessary effort to try and work through them together.”

Meanwhile, Kenya has secured a second black-ish spinoff called mixed-ish, that will tell the story of Rainbow’s life growing up. A previous spinoff, grown-ish, is already a success on Freeform and details the oldest Johnson child’s transition to college.

Kenya and Rania have not released a statement yet.

We hope everything works out for the best!