Last week,the world learned that Aisha Tyler and her husband of more than 20 years, Jeff Tietjens, had decided to end their marriage and file for divorce. At the time the story broke, neither Tyler nor her husband had commented on their split. But yesterday, Tyler finally decided to speak out on her divorce and she broke down in tears as she explained how heartbroken she was about having to leave her husband.
As previously reported, Tyler and Tietjens, were college sweethearts who married in 1994. But after more than 20 years of marriage, the couple separated in January of last year. Tietjens finally decided to file for divorce in L.A. Superior Court earlier this month.
In a segment during yesterday’s episode of “The Talk,” Tyler explained that she and Tietjens wanted to keep their decision to divorce private until they were ready to discuss it publicly. However, tabloids learned of their divorce early, forcing Tyler to share details about her marriage and why leaving her husband has been the hardest decision of her life.
“I’ve been with him for more than have of my adult life. He’s my only adult relationship. And, other than my parents, he’s the person who has influenced me and cared for me the most. In fact, he cared for me even longer than my parents have cared for me and it’s very hard when you love someone very much to also start to realize that maybe you want different things for your lives,” she explained. “That’s a very difficult realization to come to and you don’t want to accept it and you don’t want to believe it.”
Tyler explains that she and her husband tried for over a year to save their marriage, but when they realized it just wasn’t going to work out Tyler made the decision to do all that she could to protect her husband’s privacy during their divorce.
“He didn’t choose this life, I chose this life. It’s very unfair to drag someone into this life that doesn’t want any part of it. The only reason they’re here is because they fell in love with someone in the business,” Tyler explained as her co-hosts cried with her. “He’s a very private person. He’s a very kindhearted person and I didn’t want to expose him to the kind of stuff I knew was going to come when this happened.
“I know that maybe it’s strange for people to understand why you would wanna protect someone that you’re breaking up with, but I love him and I’ll always love him.”
It’s heartbreaking to see Tyler and her husband have to go through a divorce and our hearts go out to both of them during this difficult time. But despite their split, Tyler also explained that she sees a silver lining to her union with Tietjens. Read what she had to say about why she doesn’t see her marriage as a failure after the cut.
