Humorist Reveals He's Actually Been Married for 10 Years

David Sedaris announced his secret wedding to long-term partner Hugh Hamrick.

In a The New Yorker essay published April 13, the best-selling author reveals why he kept his marriage under wraps for so long.

"It was essentially a shotgun wedding, completely the idea of my banker," Sedaris wrote. Adding the ceremony was "solely for financial reasons."

The couple was wed in a Beaufort, N.C., courthouse.

The wedding only took a few minutes, and "Hugh and I would never kiss in public, so at the end, we shook hands," Sedaris wrote.

They started their ‘honeymoon' by thanking the magistrate and the stranger who served as their witness.

Apart from finances, the wedding was hidden because of Sedaris' dislike for the phrase ‘my husband.'

"Something about it sets off alarm bells in me. It's like 'my unicycle' or 'my rescue ferret'-just creepy," he wrote. "In this day and age, can't I be a husband but identify as a boyfriend?"

The newlyweds told no one. "I have lied in interviews, on forms; wherever the question is asked," Sedaris wrote.

The only time he almost broke his silence was to his sisters: Amy and Gretchen Sedaris.

While at an Amsterdam restaurant, Sedaris began "imagining how liberating it might feel to finally come clean," when Hamrick ruined the moment by standing up to leave.

Annoyed that this almost-reveal was ruined by his own spouse's decision to leave the restaurant, he ends his essay writing: "Would it kill you to give me a few extra minutes? Yet I got to my feet, and willingly. He's so controlling, yet so very handsome, my husband."

David Sedaris is the best-selling author of books and essays, including Calypso, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, and Me Talk Pretty One Day.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 6:24 PM.