Amber Ruffin is getting married, with the longtime late-night writer and performer sharing photos and video of the moment her partner, Kelsi Cleary-Hammarstedt, proposed to her—and Ruffin responded with a counter-proposal.
“JUST EN-GAY-GED!!” Ruffin announced on social media.
Ruffin said the proposal took place in her hometown of Omaha while she and Cleary-Hammarstedt were out with friends listening to musician Chad Stoner. As Stoner began playing one of the couple’s songs, Ruffin’s friends started appearing one by one to hand her roses.
“Kelsi gets on one knee and proposes!” Ruffin wrote. “I thought they were gonna, so I counter-proposed!”
Video from the night shows Cleary-Hammarstedt asking Ruffin to marry her. Ruffin initially answers, “It depends,” before revealing why: she had brought along a ring of her own.
Ruffin then proposed right back.
“Everyone screamed and gave the roses back to Kelsi!” Ruffin wrote. “Then we sang and danced all night.”
Ruffin joined Late Night with Seth Meyers when the show launched in 2014, becoming the first Black woman to write for a network late-night show and quickly emerging as one of its most prominent on-air performers. She later hosted Peacock’s The Amber Ruffin Show and currently serves as a team captain on CNN’s Have I Got News For You.
Ruffin has also built a significant career in theater. She co-wrote the book for the Broadway musical Some Like It Hot with Matthew López, earning a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical and winning the Drama Desk Award in the same category. She later contributed additional material to the 2024 Broadway revival of The Wiz. Earlier this year, her musical BIGFOOT!—for which she wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book—played Off-Broadway at New York City Center and earned a Drama League nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical
Ruffin was previously married to Dutch artist Jan Schiltmeijer from 2010 to 2023.
And I was like WHAT?!
Congrats to the both of them!