The West Wing’s Joshua Malina’s Wife Melissa Merwin Files for Divorce After 28 Years of Marriage

The West Wing alum Joshua Malina’s wife, Melissa Merwin, filed for divorce on August 2, Closer can confirm via court documents.

The pair were married for 28 years before calling it quits on their marriage. She cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for their split in the documents. Their date of separation was not listed. The documents were filed in Los Angeles. Their date of marriage was listed as December 1, 1996.

They do not have any minor children. Joshua and Melissa share two adult children, Avi and Daisy, therefore, she did not request child support in her filing. She did, however, request spousal support.

For the most part, details surrounding their marriage had been kept largely under wraps. In December 2021, Joshua shared a rare post about his marriage on his Instagram page, writing, “I married this knockout 25 years ago today! ? @isaroseflowers.” He attached a photo from their wedding day.

Joshua did not immediately address their split on his social media accounts. Melisa most recently posted on her Instagram account in March, wishing Daisy a happy birthday by sharing photos of her from when she was young and now.

Fans best recognize Joshua from when he starred in The West Wing from 2002 to 2006 as Will Bailey. After that, he appeared in Big Shots, In Plain Sight, Backwash, Leap Year and more. From 2012 to 2018, Joshua starred in Scandal as David Rosen. The dad of two opened up about saying goodbye to the series.

“I actually got a tip-off from the boss herself. I got a call the night before [the table read] from Shonda letting me know that it was curtains for David Rosen, which was nice of her,” he told Variety in April 2018 of learning his character’s fate.

When asked if it was hard to keep his character’s death a secret, Joshua admitted he only told select family members before it aired on TV.

“It was. I think I only told my wife and my parents and nobody off of the show,” he told the outlet. “I also wanted to kind of watch everybody else as they found out, so it was sort of fun for me because I knew I would enjoy seeing people’s reactions at the table read.”

When asked what the hardest part about leaving the show, he did not hold anything back.

“You kind of have to fall in love with whomever you’re playing and I just really, really liked the character Shonda and the writers wrote. I loved the terrific, sort of interesting, complex guy,” he said. “I also like the fact that in the world of Scandal and the universe of Scandal as created by Shonda Rhimes he was as close to a good guy as you get, I think. It sort of made moral sense to me that in that universe that’s why David had to go. He was kind of maybe too good for the world of Scandal. I felt sad I guess for Abby because David and Abby were finally reaching what it looked like happy end game and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s kind of sad. It’s not to be.'”