“Black-Ish” Creator Kenya Barris Calls Estranged Wife His ‘Forever Partner’ In Sweet Birthday Message, Amidst Filing For Divorce 

Black-Ish Creator Kenya Barris Calls Estranged Wife His ‘Forever Partner’ In Sweet Birthday Message, Amidst Filing For Divorce

Hit sitcom creator of ‘Black-ish’ Kenya Barris took to Instagram over the weekend to wish his estranged wife, Dr. Rania “Rainbow” Barris a sweet birthday message. In a series of photos of his soon-to-be ex-wife, Barris calls Rainbow his friend, an excellent mother, and his life partner. He writes,

“HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my forever partner, forever friend, forever baby muva, forever beautiful people maker, forever Bowdy!!”

He ends with a few kind words,

“Rainbow, have an AMAZING birthday and celebrate ALL the ways you’ve made the world a better place.”

The message comes amidst Kenya filing for divorce in an L.A. Superior Court on his 45th birthday, August 9th. According to reports, this would be the producers second filing, in 2014 being his first. In the same year, his hit show black-ish premiered, but later he reportedly withdrew from the divorce proceedings. Barris and his wife, who works as an anesthesiologist, married in 1999 and have six kids.

In the past, Dr. Barris revealed their marital woes are in fact a reflection of the issues Rainbow and Dre experienced on the series during their near divorce. She says,

 “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.”

This fall, ‘Black-ish,’ is set to make it’s season 6 return to ABC on September 24.

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.