Who Is Lauren Morelli? ‘OITNB’ Writer Divorces Husband And Dates Poussey Actress Samira Wiley

“Orange is the New Black” writer Lauren Morelli divorced her husband Steve Balisone, Hollywood Life reported Sunday. The writer is now dating actress Samira Wiley, who plays romantic inmate Poussey Washington on the hit Netflix series. The writer said she discovered she was gay while she wrote for the show’s main character.

The divorce is apparently “very amicable,” TMZ reported. In fact, the couple filed a joint petition. They were together for six years before marriage and then five months later she realized she was gay, the U.K.’s Daily Mail said.

Morelli revealed she was a lesbian during a coming out essay for Identities.Mic in May. She explained the relationship between Piper Chapman (who is played by Taylor Schilling) and Alex Vause (who is played by Laura Prepon) helped her discover her sexual identity months after she married her then-husband.

"I was nervous about the first love scene I'd written for Alex and Piper," Morelli wrote. "I'd loved writing it, loved watching a tenderness emerge in their relationship where passion always seemed to be the ruling principle, but by that time, I was so deep in my own self-doubt that I constantly felt like a fraud. I was sure it was bleeding into my writing. How could it not? I was married to a man, but I wasn't straight."

On the show, Piper and Alex’s relationship is a tense issue. Before Piper got engaged, they were in a years-long relationship. They eventually reconnect after Alex rats her out and puts her behind bars in the same prison. “In Piper and Alex, I’d found a mouthpiece for my own desires and a glimmer of what my future could look like,” Morelli wrote.

Click here to read the full essay.

“OITNB” fans are eagerly waiting for Season 3, which is set to premiere in June or July of 2015. Prepon will return as a regular character on the series and teased about her major sex scene with Schilling.

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