19-04-2025
'Friday Night Lights 'Star Zach Gilford Files for Divorce from Kiele Sanchez After 12 Years of Marriage: Report
Zach Gilford and wife Kiele Sanchez are reportedly separating after 12 years of marriage.
The Friday Night Lights actor, 43, filed for divorce from the Lost alum, 47, on Friday, April 18, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ.
Gilford cited 'irreconcilable differences' as the reason for the longtime couple's split, and did not specify a date of separation, per TMZ.
The outlet also reported that the Gilford is seeking joint legal and physical custody of the couple's two kids — Zeppelin, 7, and Revel, 4 — and checked a box to award his estranged wife spousal support.
Representatives for Gilford and Sanchez did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Saturday, April 19.
Related: Zach Gilford Shares Shocking Photos of His Swollen Face, Says He Still Has 'a Little Ways to Go'
Sanchez — who got engaged in December 2011 and tied the knot in 2012 — starred together in 2014's The Purge: Anarchy. More recently, Sanchez portrayed Gilford's on-screen wife in a recurring role in 2022's Criminal Minds: Evolution, in which he played serial killer Elias Voit.
The actors are quite private about their personal life, though Gilford occasionally shared glimpses into their time as both an on-screen and off-screen couple on Instagram. Sanchez's Instagram account, meanwhile, is private.
"Fun times with my fake family (real wife, fake kids),' Gilford captioned a selfie of the pair with the actors who portrayed their on-screen children in 2022.
The same year, the couple celebrated a decade of marriage with an anniversary trip, which Gilford also documented on Instagram, writing, 'Thank you to @sanchomonsto for 10 years of 'sexy-tinis.' "
The actor also shared a photo of the couple kissing to commemorate his 41st birthday in January 2023.
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Gilford and Sanchez welcomed their first child, daughter Zeppelin Adele Gilford, in November 2017, news that came years after the couple announced that they had lost a baby near the end of Sanchez's third trimester.
'We regretfully confirm that Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez recently lost their child to a late-term miscarriage,' a rep for the couple told PEOPLE in 2015.
After welcoming Zeppelin via surrogate, the actors told PEOPLE, 'We have always wanted to be parents, and Zeppelin has made our dreams come true.'
Opening up about fatherhood — and Sanchez — after starting their family, Gilford told Us magazine that he can 'tear up' just by watching her as a new mother.
'My wife isn't like anyone I've ever met in my life,' he said in the 2018 interview. 'I think when people meet her they just fall in love with her. I feel like she's taught me how to love and you just see her looking at this baby and you just know she's a mama lion and nothing will ever happen to this kid. It's really incredible.'
Read the original article on People
