Fresh off her secret gig as the Raven on The Masked Singer, Ricki Lake says she’s found love again nearly two years after her ex-husband’s sudden death.
“I found love again,” the talk show host said Wednesday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, California, according to PEOPLE magazine.
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“My husband, who passed from mental illness and suicide, it’ll be two years on Feb. 11,” she said of her late husband Christian Evans, “and I just recently found a brilliant new love.”
The Hairspray star said she’s now dating Jeff Scult, who founded the clothing brand One Golden Thread.
“He’s making me really happy,” she said. “We’ve been together for three-and-a-half months. We met through a mutual friend.”
Last week, she shared an Instagramphoto of the two of them at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, captioning the post, “This is what happy looks like.”
In 2017, Lake revealed on Instagram that Evans, who she married in 2012, had died by suicide. She went on to reveal that he had been battling bipolar disorder and that his manic episodes were a contributing factor in their 2015 divorce. Despite the legal split, the couple reportedly continued their relationship until as recently as fall 2016.
“I have to spread the word about recognizing this disorder and getting treatment as soon as possible,” Lake told PEOPLE in 2017 after his death. “Christian didn’t want to be labeled as bipolar, but he admitted he was in the note he left. That was him finally owning it. That was him giving me permission to tell his story.”
Before Lake was revealed as the Raven on Wednesday’s episode of The Masked Singer, she had hinted in previous episodes about the “darkest, terrible loss” of her “beloved” ex-husband.
Following the revelation that Lake was the Raven, she said the costume represented herself. “For me, the raven and what it represented [was] the loss of my husband,” Lake told host Nick Cannon. “So much of the last year-and-a-half has been getting over my darkest, terrible loss. It really resonated with me.”
“It was a lot fun. It was really fun to sing again and to have this production value. And being anonymous and getting to do something that was very public was a thrill. And I was also happy to be done,” she told PEOPLE of her elimination. “I was in so much pain in the end. I wasn’t the best singer, but I wasn’t the worst. But I loved my costume and I loved my story. I got to share my story about my husband who passed away. It was a real cathartic experience.”
“I had sciatica during this period of making the show,” she revealed. “I could barely walk. I had never had it before.” Despite being in “a lot of pain during the process,” Lake said she “still managed to have a great time.”
Celebrity panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Ken Jeong spent the last five episodes trying to guess who the Raven was, with Thicke ultimately guessing Lake correctly on Wednesday.
Lake was eliminated after singing “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. Previously, she had sung “Rainbow” by Kesha and “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga.
Previously eliminated from The Masked Singer were Antonio Brown, Tommy Chong, Terry Bradshaw, Margaret Cho and Tori Spelling.
New episodes of The Masked Singer air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
Photo credit: Robin Marchant / Contributor / Getty
