Amber Ruffin Joked About Her Divorce on April Fools' Day, but It Wasn't a Joke
"It's truly like two 14-year-old boys found each other and two days after every anniversary, we high-five."
Published April 2 2024, 2:30 p.m. ET
You may know Amber Ruffin from NBC’s late night programming. She hosted The Amber Ruffin Show from 2020 to 2022 on Peacock and still appears regularly on “Jokes We Can’t Tell” segments on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Even if you’re a fan of Amber, you might not have realized she was married. After seeing her on Late Night this week, you may be wondering what’s real life and what’s just a set-up for a joke.
Amber Ruffin was married for 13 years before her divorce.
On an April 1, 2024, appearance as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the comic joked about her very real divorce and her very obvious joke that she had recently married fellow comic and Late Night with Seth Meyers house band leader Fred Armisen.
The divorce is real. The union between Amber Ruffin and Jan Schiltmeijer was officially finalized on Dec. 5, 2023, in the Rockland County Supreme Court in New York.
For the entire time Amber has been on Instagram, she hasn’t shared photos of herself with her now ex-husband. There were a few jokes he was part of, but nothing that showed that the two were together. Jan's Instagram account is private.
Amber did share news of the divorce in a Jan. 1, 2024, post. It was the sixth piece of news in the post.
Amber and Jan met while she was part of Boom Chicago.
Amsterdam is a hotbed of American comedy. Really! Home to , the improv comedy club that’s featured quite a few SNL alums, it’s an attractive place for funny people to get good at their craft while enjoying one of Europe’s finest cities. It’s also how Amber and Jan first met. Kinda. They met in New York via Amsterdam via Chicago.
In a June 10, 2022, interview with The Today Show, Amber said, “My husband and I met in New York while we were both living in Amsterdam, and he is a Dutch person and I was performing with a theater called Boom Chicago, which is a theatre of Americans in Amsterdam, but we were on tour in New York. He was just on vacation in New York. And I was outside of a bar downtown smoking a cigarette and he walked down the street."
In the same interview, Amber talked about how the couple didn’t celebrate their anniversary. "Three days after, I think it was our third anniversary, we were like 'our anniversary,' and we had completely missed it ... and every year since, we keep missing it. It's truly like two 14-year-old boys found each other and two days after every anniversary, we high-five."
Unlike his ex, Jan isn't a comic. The Amsterdam native is a painter. His site is occasionally updated with works available for sale.
Amber wrote the book for the new production of The Wiz. It opens on April 17, 2024, on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre. It's currently in previews.
Amber and her sister Lacey host The Amber & Lacey, Lacey & Amber Show! podcast on the iHeart Radio Network. New episodes are released regularly.