Fortune Feimster and Jacquelyn Smith Have Untied Their Knot — The Couple Is Getting a Divorce

We love a good joke and we especially love a comedian who knows how to land that giggle plane. Fortune Feimster is that kind of comic and more. She first entered into the zeitgeist via Last Comic Standing but she exploded on Chelsea Handler's show After Lately. It's hard to resist the colorful turns of phrase that she cultivated in Belmont, N.C.

Fortune told Philadelphia Magazine that she didn't come out of the closet until after she moved to Los Angeles in 2003. "My material is mostly about being that angsty teen who had secret crushes but didn’t really know why," she explained. In 2016, she met a teacher named Jacquelyn Smith and by January 2018, they were engaged. Being married wasn't really their thing as the couple announced their divorce in June 2025. Here's what we know.

In a joint message shared on Fortune's Instagram, the couple broke the bad news about their marriage. "We've been separated for a little bit, both of us dealing with tough health situations in our families, so it wasn't something we were ready to talk about," it said. Both are sad to close this chapter in their lives but are grateful for the decade they had together.

Comments were turned off under the post, but at least one person referenced the divorce in another Instagram post featuring Fortune with Jason Sudeikis at the annual Big Slick charity event in Kansas City. "You guys really announced your breakup like the first day of pride month," commented the Movie and Wine Instagram, which was not received well by others in the replies.

Although Fortune and Jaquelyn were engaged in 2018, they didn't start planning the wedding until March 2020, around the same time as COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.

The global healthcare crisis brought their plans to a screeching halt — and they only started to re-evaluate their decision to postpone the ceremony once the news about Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court got out.

As Fortune told People, the growing number of discussions concerning Obergefell v. Hodges — the civil rights case that saw the legalization of same-sex marriage — partially fueled their decision to bring the wedding forward.

"I'm not going to lie, there were some nerves about the Supreme Court. After Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, all these people started talking about gay marriage again. On the first day of their session, two of the justices brought up gay marriage," Fortune told People.

"Who knows what will happen? Hopefully, marriage equality is here to stay. But we wanted to be more proactive and get married while we know we can," Fortune added. 

Fortune and Jacquelyn eventually opted for a beautiful beachside ceremony with their closest friends.

As the star told People, they rented a house in Malibu, Calif. with enough space for guests to talk to each other comfortably without having to worry about contracting the virus. With the backyard overlooking the mesmerizing seaside, the couple exchanged their vows at a beautiful location, in the company of their nearest and dearest.