Inside Isaiah Washington’s Love Story With Late Wife Jenisa Washington

Despite launching himself into the spotlight with his 2005 Grey’s debut, Washington has largely kept his family away from the harsh glare.

“I’ve been doing this since 1986, and I always said to myself that I never wanted to be a movie star,” the Oscar Shaw alum shared on Pierre Edwards’ podcast Pierre’s Panic Room in 2023. “I started off in theater and education after I got out of the military. I found myself at Howard University, homeless. I say that I’ve had my first midlife crisis at the age of 23.”

Briefly married during his time in the service, Washinton continued, he decided he no longer wanted to work in engineering and pursued acting after he was cast in a play.

Largely inspired by Spike Lee’s 1986 movie She’s Gotta Have It, “I sought Spike out like a stalker,” Washington admitted to Chron in 2006. “I’d follow his car. Wherever he was, I’d toss my photo and resume into the car.”

He ended up appearing in several of Lee’s films, including 1994’s Crooklyn, 1995’s Clockers as well as 1996’s Girl 6 and Get on the Bus. Around this time, Washington’s personal life was also changing as he met Jenisa in 1995—recently revealing they were introduced by the late comedian Reggie McFadden—and walked back down the aisle in 1996.

While Washington continued to act in movies like Love Jones, Romeo Must Die and Hollywood Homicide in the ‘90s and early aughts, it wasn’t until 2005 that he became a TV star with the premiere of Grey’s Anatomy. Still, he made sure that Dr. Burke wasn’t his most important role.

“I enjoy being a husband. I enjoy being a dad. I enjoy being an actor,” Washington added to the outlet. “I enjoy traveling without an entourage. I enjoy making choices that people are happy to ask, ‘Mr. Washington, can I take your picture?’ and not ‘Gotcha!'”

And yet he found himself ensnared in scandal in 2007 after using a homophobic slur.

Though he apologized, “I lost everything,” Washington recalled to HuffPost Live in 2013. “I couldn’t afford to have an agent… I couldn’t afford to have a publicist… I couldn’t afford to continue.”

But through this time away from Hollywood, he continued, “I became a better husband, a better father and a better artist.”

While Washington has gone on to appear in other TV shows and films—even making a 2014 cameo on Grey’s—he noted he’s still asked about his past.

“It was painful. It was unfortunate. And I did apologize,” he told NPR in 2013. “And the story was never right. Six years later, I’m still asked that question. Whereas six years later I’ve been virtually unheard, unseen, and maybe to some, not that homophobic train wreck that they were trying to make me out to be.”

Ultimately, he added to NPR, “I’m fine with me. My wife, my three kids, when I walk in the door, my child hugs me, and we have a great life.”

Truthfully, we placed a higher priority on healing that relationship than any fictional patients.

“I said no more than I said yes,” he told Fox News in 2022 of turning down a series of jobs over the years. “Because I always wanted to be alive to know 20 years later what my kids would think of me in that particular role. So for me, yes, being married and having children, did change a lot of my trajectory.”

Admittedly, he continued, knowing how fully he’d commit to his role as husband was the reason he had concerns about getting married again, “but I’m glad I did because my wife and children really make you the best human being you could be.”

To learn more about the personal lives of more Grey’s Anatomy cast members, read on.