The internet is going crazy over a recent photo of Pauletta Washington, the wife of superstar Denzel Washington. And it’s about time. Ok, so we know Pauletta Washington as Denzel’s wife and John David, Malcom, Olivia and Katia’s mom. But can we just take a minute to appreciate the beautiful and talented force that she is? The actress, singer and classically trained pianist has always been all about family, and is rarely seen out and about. But when she is, she usually has her husband of over 40 years by her side. That’s probably why a lot of people didn’t recognize her when she showed up on screen playing the opinionated and often meddlesome Mama Lu in the hit Hulu drama “Reasonable Doubt.”
“I didn’t realize that was Pauletta Washington in Reasonable Doubt. I fear both of John David Washington’s parents can out act him,” wrote someone on X.
But in case we forgot, Emmy-nominated celebrity makeup artist and founder of Ashunta Sheriff Beauty Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks just reminded us that Pauletta is always on point when she posted shots of herself with a glowing Mrs. Washington in New York City.
“One of the highlights was reuniting with my longtime client and one of my favorite humans, @ettappw,” she captioned her May 13 Instagram post. “Doesn’t she look absolutely gorgeous?!?”
Check out the beautiful pic for yourself here:
The internet couldn’t agree more as they flooded the post with over 8,000 likes and complimentary comments.
“She is gorgeous 😍🔥look at those cheekbones 😍👏🏾👏🏾you did that,” wrote someone.
Washington first met her Oscar-winning husband while working with him on the 1975 biopic Wilma, about Olympic gold medal-winning track star Wilma Rudolph. The pair tied the knot in 1983 and share four children together. But as Denzel admits, he had to put in some serious work to convince Pauletta to say, “I do.”
“You heard it here first,” Denzel told Access Hollywood in a 2013 interview. “She turned me down, she said no. And since it was three times, that means she turned me down twice.”
Commenters on Ashunta Sheriff-Kendricks’ post say all of that hard work was more than worth it.
“Baby, Pauletta been the prize and still the prize!! Simply stunning!” they wrote.