The Truth About Melissa Rauch's Husband

Melissa Rauch is best known for portraying the zany Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on CBS's hit sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" for nine seasons. While the public may know Rauch as an accomplished actor and screenwriter, Rauch is also a devoted wife and mother who's been married for just about the same length of time as being a professional thespian.

The star has been pretty mum about her love life, but during the time she has talked about her beau, she's stated that she has been fortunate to find a great partner that has doubled as her creative partner (via New Jersey Monthly). We can't blame Rauch for wanting to keep her private life to herself as much as possible; however, that doesn't stop us from wanting to know more about her and the man she's married to.

So, who is this mystery man that Rauch has been married to for over a decade? Here's the truth about the actor's husband Winston Rauch (née Beigel).

So how did Melissa Rauch and Winston Beigel meet? The pair met while they both attended Marymount Manhattan College, located on the Upper East Side of New York City, during their first year. While chatting with RogerEbert.com, she shared that they quickly bonded over their passion for comedy, and after Beigel showed up to watch one of her stand-up routines, the pair decided they would team up and write sketches with one another. Rauch told Ebert that they started writing together because "we have a very similar sensibility and our favorite thing to do is make each other laugh." Rauch also revealed that after they began working together, she and Biegel became a couple.

"I am very fortunate that I met my husband in college. He is my best friend and the love of my life, in addition to being an incredible writing partner. The only thing I regret is not meeting him even sooner, as my life has just gotten better since he came into it", the actor stated when she discussed her relationship with her husband in an interview with the New Jersey Monthly.

Rauch and her husband Winston exchanged vows in 2007. Much isn't known about their big day, but we know that he decided to take his wife's surname and goes by Winston Rauch (via IMDb).

Melissa and Winston Rauch wrote their first extensive collaboration in 2005; a comedy one-women stage show, "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush." That same year they presented it at the New York International Fringe Festival, and  won the Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Solo Show at the festival. Winston also directed the critically acclaimed project about the rebellious daughter of the 43rd president of the United States  (via Playbill).

The essence of the 90-minute skit was "our imagining private thoughts of her public incidents. Like a lot of people from our generation, Jenna's had opportunities and privileges handed to her, which can be as much a burden as a blessing. We think we pretty fairly exhibit that burden in the script," Melissa has stated according to the Kitsap Sun. The following year, Winston also directed their show at the 12th Annual Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and later that fall at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles (via TheaterMania).

While speaking with Interview Magazine, Melisa explained the dynamics between her and her husband's writing relationship. She said, "Our process is that we outline everything to death before we take a stab at writing the dialogue ... I'll take a stab at the scene, he'll take a stab at the scene, and we'll combine the best of. Or it will be like, 'What you wrote is better.' It's pretty balanced.'"

After the big splash of "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush," Melissa Rauch acquired an agent, and that's when she and Winston Rauch decided to pick up and leave the East. Unfortunately, the one-woman show didn't become a big hit in the City of Angels. "We did a showcase of ['Miss Education'], and not a lot of people showed up because not a lot of people see theater in L.A. — so that was another lesson," Melissa once stated (via Backstage).

When the pair made the move out west, they would take frequent trips to the happiest place on earth. In a 2013 Interview with Esquire, Melissa shared, "When I was out of work when I first moved to L.A., one of the first things my husband and I did was buy season's passes to Disney, and whenever I was bummed out about work, we would go to Space Mountain, and it was like a physical injection of anti-depressants."

Winston Rauch may not be a household name but has quite a few projects under his belt, including the dark comedy film "The Bronze" that he and Melissa Rauch wrote together. The flick is about a former Olympian who is making a comeback in the world of gymnastics, only to find out that a younger athlete may be getting in the way of that.

According to People, Melissa gushed to reporters at a screening for "The Bronze" about the film becoming a reality for her and Winston. She stated, "I was just so thrilled because when we wrote it on the page, we kept thinking, are we actually going to be able to do this? So we were shooting, and I was running back behind the camera saying, 'This is so exciting being able to do this!'"

While dishing to Vulture about the film, Melissa also discussed an acrobatic sex scene she shared with actor Sebastian Stan who played a gymnastic coach, and said that her husband was a good sport. She recalled, "Oh, Winston was so game throughout. Anything for the sake of the movie! He would even be like, 'I think we should do another take of that.'"

Melissa and Winston Rauch are the proud parents of Sadie and Brooks Rauch. In December of 2017, the couple welcomed their daughter, and in 2020, Melissa gave birth to their son Brooks. Before getting pregnant with Sadie, they experienced a heartbreaking setback while trying to expand their family when Melissa suffered a miscarriage (via E!).

When she was pregnant with Sadie, the actor wrote a guest column for Glamour and disclosed that she was "pretty much terrified at the moment that it will happen again" but wanted to share her story in hopes that it would help other women going through the same thing. She also discussed the period after the miscarriage and said she wasn't going to blame herself for what happened, and wrote, "For a while, my husband and I just started saying to each other — without any judgment or acrimony to the baby, of course—that the baby 'bailed' instead." She also disclosed that she wondered why other women were able to carry their baby to term but she wasn't.

At the end of her heartfelt story, Melissa stated: "So, to all the women out there who are dealing with fertility issues, have gone through a miscarriage, or are going through the pain of it currently ... You are not alone. And it is perfectly okay to not be okay right now."

When a married woman goes into labor, the one person expected in the delivery room is their husband. Unfortunately, Winston Rauch couldn't be with his wife because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 2020 exclusive with Glamour, "The Big Bang Theory" star wrote an article about giving birth during the pandemic without Winston by her side and explained, "Although the hospital I was delivering at did allow birth partners, my husband had to stay home with our daughter since our original plan of having family come to town — as well as our backup plans — were no longer options due to COVID-19."

Also in Melissa's Glamour article she talks about saying her goodbyes to Winston and Sadie as she walked into the hospital alone and joked, "So I tried my best to hold on to that as I said goodbyes to my husband and daughter and walked myself into the hospital, masked up, clumsily balancing my bags and birthing ball like I was doing a knocked-up Mr. Bean bit." She also stated that there were times she wished she had the comfort of Winston while in the hospital. " I don't want to sugarcoat it," she explained. "It's an inherently difficult situation and there were moments I felt every feeling in the book of feelings — so much so that my feelings were having major feelings." However, she said that her nurses, doctors, and husband, who was there for the birth of Brooks via FaceTime, made her feel secure while in the delivery room.

Winston and Melissa Rauch have a production company called After January, which is based at Warner Bros Television (via Deadline).  Melissa approached the studio to pitch a reboot for the NBC show "Night Court" since they were the studio behind the original series that aired from 1984 to 1992, and, as a result, the A-list couple both serve as executive producers for the show. What's more, Melissa will be starring in the series that's been picked up after being created during NBC's pilot season in 2021 (via Deadline). 

"My intention was purely to be behind the camera on this project, but my plans quickly changed after falling in love with the incredible script from the brilliant mind of Dan Rubin," she told Deadline. She went on to say, "I couldn't be more thrilled to join forces with Dan, the immense talent that is John Larroquette, and the two powerhouse institutions of comedy that are NBC and Warner Bros. to bring Night Court back to television."

Melissa will play Abby Stone, the daughter of Judge Harry Stone, played by the late Harry Anderson in the original show. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Abby is "unapologetically optimistic" who, like her father, will be governing over the graveyard shift of one of Manhattan's arraignment courts and trying to bring order to all the craziness that's going down in her courtroom. As of this writing, there has not been a premiere date for the sitcom.

On September 9, 2021, Melissa Rauch and her husband Winston Rauch launched a charity that started with a "Big Bang Theory" fan from Ireland. At the tender age of three, in 2017, Oscar Keogh was diagnosed with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) tumor. His parents, Yavanna and Lar, were told that Oscar had stage four cancer, and while treatment could help him live at least another two years, that's all that could be done. Not long after the diagnosis, the couple reached out to Melissa, who played her son's favorite character Bernadette Wolowitz. Yavanna was hoping she could get her son an autograph from the actress, and it was from there that the star and her husband connected with Oscar and his family (via the Irish Examiner). 

In an interview, Melissa shared that after Oscar's passing at age five, she and Winston wanted to do something to honor his life. That's when the charity Oscar's Kids was born. She shared, "My husband, Winston, and I joined forces with Oscar's parents, our dear friends ... to form Oscar's Kids." The organization raises awareness and funding for pediatric cancer and is a "trans-Atlantic pediatric cancer charity." The Keoghs run the chapter based out of Ireland, and the Rauchs run the U.S. division (via Leaders), and with his immense background in marketing, Winston handles acquiring funds for cancer research and DIPG.

We are sure that Winston and Melissa Rauch were glued to their television sets during the most recent Winter and Summer Olympics since they both enjoy watching athletes contend in various sports. During the promotion of her and her husband's film "The Bronze," Melissa shared with Hypable that while she has no skills in gymnastics, she is an admirer of the sport and that she and Winston enjoy watching the Olympics. She added, "When we watched the games together and were looking for ideas for the original concept of the movie, we always found it funny when the announcers said something like, 'Oh, and they'll have to settle for the bronze.'" 

This is what actually gave Winston and Melissa the idea to have their main character rest on her laurels of being a former gymnastics bronze medalist. Also, the Rauchs just don't like to watch gymnastics during the summer Olympics. While speaking with RogerEbert.com, Melissa stated that she and Winston had season tickets for the gymnastics team at UCLA. The couple would attend the weekly meets and, according to Melissa, "sort of stalk the athletes," which definitely made for excellent groundwork for their film.