After 23 Years of Marriage, Star Couple Calls It Quits: Read the Announcement From Orfeh and Andy Karl

Karl and Orfeh married in January 2001.

By Ashley Turner

The longtime Broadway couple Andy Karl and Orfeh have announced they are separating after 23 years of marriage. On May 14th, they shared a photo of themselves standing apart, along with a joint statement on Karl's Instagram revealing their plans to go their separate ways. The statement read:

"After 23 years of a wonderful loving relationship, both onstage and off, we have made the decision to separate. Keeping a marriage strong can be challenging, especially when working on opposite sides of the world, but we remain committed to building a strong future, whether together or apart." In addition to requesting "respect and privacy," the post also expressed gratitude and love to the followers for their continued support throughout the years.

The two met for the first time in mid-2000, when Karl joined the cast of Saturday Night Fever, a Broadway musical in which Orfeh was already performing at the time. Six months later, in January 2001, they were married in South Beach.

An interview with Playbill in May 2015 revealed the couple's love story. The 49-year-old Karl said, "We were both very interested in each other, but I played it way cool. So cool that she didn't even notice. I had just come into the show and she was this phenomenon that I'd never seen before. I can't compare my wife to anyone else, because she's so unique."

As the three-time Tony nominee continued, he was not confident he had a "chance" but often tried to initiate "conversations" and eventually realized that they both were "looking for the same thing." He said the relationship "happened mutually."

Similarly, Orfeh, 53, said, "I knew instantly. I was like, 'Love at first sight really exists?' I thought that was a total cheesehead concept, but the minute I laid eyes on him, everything else faded from view... I said to a couple of my girlfriends in the show: 'Don't let me screw this up. I have to be with this guy.'"

The now-estranged couple performed in various Broadway theatre productions together, including Legally Blonde: The Musical, Pretty Woman: The Musical, Me & Mrs. Jones, Nights on Broadway II, Bright Lights, Big City, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. According to the Playbill interview, Andy mentioned that it was much "easier than [one] might think" to maintain a long marriage, referring to Orfeh as his "champion."

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"I'm the guy that sits back and thinks about things, but she's the go-getter. The two of us work off each other in that way. I've learned so much from her and am still learning," he mentioned at the time. In a past interview with Berkshire Magazine, Orfeh had referred to Karl as her "best friend" and the person who could make her "laugh harder than anyone else on the planet." Karl had stated that a key to their successful long-term marriage was that his wife always told him the "absolute truth."

The challenges of a long-distance marriage may have taken a toll on the New York City natives over the past year. Andy Karl has been touring globally with the Broadway production of Groundhog Day: The Musical, including runs in London from May to August 2023 and then in Melbourne from January to April 2024. Meanwhile, Orfeh was based in their home in Manhattan during this period, separated from her husband for extended stretches due to his work commitments on the road.

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