Ricki Lake Husband: Who She’s Married to Now and Her Past Marriages

If you’re searching for Ricki Lake husband, the current answer is Ross Burningham. Ricki Lake married Burningham in January 2022 after a long personal journey that includes two previous marriages, raising two sons, and rebuilding her life in the public eye without turning her private world into constant spectacle. The details matter here, because a lot of internet summaries compress her relationship history into a few sloppy sentences—when her real timeline is clearer, more human, and easier to understand once it’s laid out properly.

Who Is Ricki Lake?

Ricki Lake is an American actress and television host who has lived multiple “career lives” in one. She first became widely known as an actress in the late 1980s, most famously for her breakout role as Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray. Not long after, she turned into a daytime-TV phenomenon with The Ricki Lake Show, building a pop-culture identity that blended relatability, sharp instincts, and an ability to hold attention without feeling overly polished.

In later years, Lake expanded into documentary work and producing, showing a more behind-the-scenes creative lane that many people didn’t expect from a talk-show star. Across decades, she’s stayed recognizable without being locked into one format. That longevity is also why people keep searching personal details: she’s been in the public eye long enough that audiences want the “full story,” especially when it comes to relationships.

Who Is Ricki Lake’s Husband Now?

Ricki Lake’s current husband is Ross Burningham. He’s widely described as an attorney and businessman, and he is not a celebrity personality in the way Ricki is. That difference is important because it shapes how the public experiences their relationship. When one partner is famous and the other is not, the relationship often appears in the media only at major milestones—engagement announcements, wedding photos, and occasional personal updates—rather than as a constant stream of public appearances.

Lake has shared joyful moments of their relationship publicly, but the tone has remained personal rather than performative. You see enough to know they’re solid, but not so much that it feels like you’re watching a relationship turned into a content strategy.

When Did Ricki Lake and Ross Burningham Get Married?

Ricki Lake and Ross Burningham got married on January 2, 2022. Their wedding became widely known through the photos and announcements Ricki shared, and it was one of those celebrity moments that felt genuinely warm rather than publicity-driven. The date is also useful because many biography pages get vague and list only “2022,” which can lead to conflicting timelines when people try to connect it to other life events.

In practical terms, January 2, 2022 is the anchor point: it’s when Ross Burningham became Ricki Lake’s husband.

How Did Ricki Lake Meet Ross Burningham?

The public version of their origin story tends to be intentionally light on detail, which isn’t unusual. Not every couple wants the “how we met” story to become a permanent internet headline. What’s clear is that their relationship became public after Ricki had already been through a major chapter of loss and rebuilding. When people describe their relationship as a “new beginning,” that’s not just a romantic phrase—it reflects the reality that she entered this marriage after significant life change.

In other words, this isn’t the story of a celebrity rushing into a headline wedding. It’s the story of a woman choosing love again in a later chapter, with more perspective than most people have in their first marriage.

Ricki Lake’s First Husband: Rob Sussman

Before Ross Burningham, Ricki Lake was married to Rob Sussman. They married in March 1994 and later divorced (their split became formal in the early 2000s). This marriage matters for two reasons: it’s the relationship tied to her early adulthood and the height of her original fame, and it’s the marriage connected to her children.

Rob Sussman is often described as an illustrator. He was not a celebrity spouse in the tabloid sense, which is why you won’t find endless public commentary about their relationship. When that era shows up online, it’s usually summarized as a straightforward timeline: marriage, children, divorce—without a lot of extra drama in the public record.

Ricki Lake’s Children

Ricki Lake has two sons from her first marriage: Milo and Owen. Over the years, she has occasionally shared motherhood reflections, but she has largely avoided turning her children into public “content,” even though she’s a public figure. That boundary is one of the reasons some people feel like they “can’t find much” when they search her family life. The reality is that she has kept parts of it private on purpose.

It’s also worth noting that her family story is one of the more grounded parts of her public identity. People may remember her for bold TV moments, but motherhood and personal health journeys have remained consistent themes in how she talks about life off-camera.

Ricki Lake’s Second Husband: Christian Evans

Ricki Lake’s second husband was Christian Evans. They married in April 2012 and later divorced in 2015. This relationship is often remembered because Ricki spoke about it with more emotional visibility than she did about her first marriage, and because Christian Evans’s life ended tragically in 2017.

This chapter tends to attract intense curiosity online, and you’ll often see the story simplified into one line. But the real reason it stays searched is that it blends love, struggle, loss, and the complicated truth that a relationship can be deeply meaningful even when it doesn’t last.

Why Her Second Marriage Still Comes Up So Often

One reason the Christian Evans chapter remains a frequent search is that it happened during an era when celebrity news traveled faster and stuck longer. Another is that Ricki has spoken about the emotional impact of that relationship in ways that made it feel real rather than polished. When a public figure speaks with that level of honesty, it naturally creates a lasting “public memory” of the relationship.

It’s also simply human nature: people are drawn to the chapters that feel intense. A quiet decade-long marriage doesn’t generate the same curiosity as a relationship that includes public heartbreak and loss.

How Ricki Lake Approaches Love Now

By the time she married Ross Burningham, Ricki Lake had already lived enough life to understand what she wanted—and what she didn’t. That’s the part of her love story that often gets overlooked. The headline is “she remarried,” but the deeper story is that she didn’t rush into rebuilding her life for the sake of optics.

Her public updates around her current marriage tend to emphasize gratitude, steadiness, and partnership. Instead of selling a fantasy, she shares a tone of relief and peace—like someone who has been through the fire (sometimes literally, given the very public loss of her home in later news coverage) and is choosing joy without pretending life is perfect.

What Her Relationship History Says About Her Public Identity

Ricki Lake has never been the type of public figure who presents life as perfectly curated. That’s true in her career and it’s true in her relationships. She’s had love that lasted, love that ended, love that changed her, and love that came after loss. When people search “Ricki Lake husband,” they’re often looking for a name—but what they’re really seeing is a woman whose public story includes real chapters, not just polished highlights.

That’s also why her current marriage draws a different kind of attention. It isn’t framed as a “look at me” moment. It’s framed as a hopeful one: someone choosing partnership again, later in life, with more intention.