‘Will & Grace’ star Eric McCormack’s wife files for divorce after 26 years
Eric McCormack’s wife Janet Leigh Holden has filed for divorce. (Getty Images)
Director Janet Leigh Holden has filed for divorce from Will & Grace star Eric McCormack after 26 years of marriage.
According to documents obtained by People, Holden filed the day before Thanksgiving and has cited “irreconcilable differences”.
Documents state that Holden is seeking spousal support from the sitcom star, as well as requesting the court to end McCormack’s ability to receive spousal support.
Neither Holden nor McCormack have made a public statement on the filing as of yet.
The ex-couple first met in 1994 on the set of CBS Western drama series Lonesome Dove: The Series, in which McCormack played Col. Francis Clay Mosby and Holden worked as an assistant director.
The couple went on to tie the knot in August 1997 and, five years later, welcomed their now-21-year-old son Finnigan Holden McCormack.
One year after he exchanged vows with Holden, McCormack landed his big break role as Will Truman on NBC sitcom Will & Grace, opposite Debra Messing.
The role, which he played for eight seasons, landed him several Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy win.
Although the stars kept their relationship relatively private, they did share tidbits from their romance throughout the years.
In a 2007 article, McCormack told The Guardian about how he first met his wife, recalling: “She was the assistant director. I was just coming out of a relationship, and not to be trusted.
“I’d been dating actresses but Janet was different. She wore jeans, and drove a pick-up truck.
“But I managed to convince her. We had a secret affair the first season. I mean, dating crew! Actually, it was much worse for her because she wasn’t supposed to give any of the actors preferential treatment.”
Elsewhere, he pointed to Holden as the person who kept him grounded when he made it big in the TV business.
“I think I was very lucky that I didn’t get well-known until my early thirties. If it had happened when I was younger, you might have seen me falling out of nightclubs,” he wrote at the time.
“I think I conducted myself as a much better human being because I was already married when all that came along (I got married five months after I got the role as Will). Once in a while, I wish that I’d had those crazy parties, but I’d have been scared of ending up as a 29-year-old has-been.”
In 2020, McCormack shared his and Holden’s first photo together on Instagram.
Accompanying the photo, taken in 1994 at the Lonesome Dove wrap party, McCormack’s caption read: “This is the first shot Janet & I took at the #LonesomeDove season one wrap party, circa Dec ‘94. Just so happens this was our ‘coming out’ party. No one on the show knew we’d been dating for months.
