All About Kerry Washington's Parents, Valerie and Earl Washington

Mar. 15, 2025

Kerry Washington with her parents Valerie and Earl Washington during the 2017 The Bronx Children’s Museum Gala.Photo:Randy Brooke/WireImage

Randy Brooke/WireImage

Kerry Washingtonis notoriously private — particularly when it comes to her family. But theScandalstar opened up about her parents and her life as an only child in her2023 memoirThicker Than Water.

The book, which was released in September 2023, takes a deep dive into Kerry’s upbringing with her parents: Valerie, a former education professor, and Earl, a retired real estate broker. The memoir alsotackles some difficult topicsfrom Kerry’s past, including herabortion,eating disorder,childhood traumas, andlearning that Earl was not her biological fatheras an adult. As painful as those experiences were, Kerry told PEOPLE the process of writing about them was surprisingly therapeutic.

“There’s a phrase, ‘You’re as sick as your secrets,' ” she told PEOPLE. “I think there’s some truth in that. There’s so much healing and liberation in the truth and not feeling like we have to hide.”

TheUnPrisonedstaralso revealed that working on her memoir strengthened her relationship with her parents.

“I really started to have so much more love and compassion and understanding for my parents,” she told PEOPLE. “Taking this deep dive into our family history made me put myself in their shoes and think about the things that they’ve had to navigate and what they’ve been through and what they’ve sacrificed. And it really made me feel closer to them.”

So, who are Valerie and Earl Washington? Here’s everything to know about Kerry Washington’s parents.

Valerie and Earl Washington.Kerry Washington Instagram

Kerry Washington Instagram

Before Earl and Valerie met, Valerie was friends with Earl’s older sister, Claudell. The two women had been identified as “special and gifted,” according to Kerry’s memoirThicker Than Water, and attended high school together at Manhattan’s Washington Irving High School. However, “they had no exposure to each other’s place of origin,” Kerry described — which was Bronx for Valerie and Brooklyn for Claudell.

Valerie and Earl made plans to meet up the following day at the Rockaways in Queens with some friends. Though the beach date was purely platonic, Earl became smitten with Valerie after witnessing how much she loved the ocean water.

“My dad says that he fell in love with my mother the instant she dove into the ocean,” Kerry said inThicker Than Water. “It would be many more months before they started to date … but my dad would later say that the image of my mother frolicking in the surf in a gorgeous two-piece was all the inspiration his heart required."

Earl and Valerie wed on May 27, 1972

Valerie and Earl Washington on their wedding day in 1972.Kerry Washington Instagram

Earl and Valerie were married on May 27, 1972, nearly five years before Kerry was born.

Kerry shared a photo of her parents’ wedding day — and their colorful ensembles — on her Instagram account to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2022.

“50 years ago today ❤️,” she wrote alongsidethe throwback photo. “Happy Anniversary Mom + Dad!!!! (who are not on Instagram but I really just wanted to brag about how DOPE my parents looked at their wedding 😂😂😂😂).”

Valerie was an education professor at Lehman College in the Bronx

Kerry Washington and Valerie Washington.Kerry Washington Instagram

As a child, Kerry had a front-row seat to her mother’s career and often accompanied her while she was teaching.

“I used to sit in the back of lecture halls and watch my mother teach hundreds of students,” she wrote inThicker Than Water. “I don’t remember a time I didn’t go to my mother’s job. Going to her office was a part of our routine, how we lived our lives with me as the only child of a working mother.”

In addition to visiting her mother’s classrooms, Valerie made learning an “immersive” experience for Kerry. The two would often visit museums, read novels together and listen to lectures. That time spent with her mother — inside and outside the classroom — deeply influenced Kerry, as she revealed in her memoir.

“My mother’s years as an educator, coupled with her own deep love of learning, provided a framework that made me both curious and determined to excel,” she wrote.

Earl held several jobs before becoming a real estate agent

Kerry Washington and Earl Washington.Kerry Washington Instagram

While Valerie’s entire career was spent in education, Earl worked in a variety of professions.

“Professionally, my dad had a tough time,” Kerry wrote in her memoir. “He worked in financial services, owned a general store and eventually became a real estate agent.”

“This venture became his newest opportunity to chase the American Dream,” Kerry wrote about United Realty.

Valerie wanted Kerry to be a lawyer

Stefanie Keenan/Getty

Valerie and Earl supported Kerry’s creative talents throughout her childhood: She performed with a youth theater group, took ballet classes and appeared in all of the plays while she attended Manhattan’s Spence School, an elite private school whose alumni includeGwyneth PaltrowandEmmy Rossum.

“My mom saw this very active, imaginative, talkative child and just tried to find ways to channel that energy, whether it was the children’s theater company or ballet class or trips to the library,” Kerry toldEbonymagazinein 2013. “Whatever it was, she was supportive of my brain activity.”

However, when Kerry revealed that she wanted to pursue acting professionally, her mother had a different idea.

“She really, really wanted me to go to law school,” Kerry revealed to PEOPLE in 2020. “Oh my God, it’s what she begged me to do.”

Kerry continued, “She used to say to me, ‘Closing arguments are just like monologues.’ She was terrified to have a starving artist of a child.”

Though her mother wasn’t initially supportive of her career choice, Kerry wrote in her memoir that she became the actress she is today because of her upbringing.

“My mother’s drive to educate me, mixed with my dad’s endless imagination, encoded within me the artist that I would become,” she wrote.

Kerry is cousins with the late Colin Powell through her mother

Colin Powell.Kerry Washington Instagram

Playing Olivia Pope onScandalisn’t Kerry’s only connection to the White House: She is also cousins with former Secretary of State Colin Powell through her mother, Valerie.

Kerry revealed Powell was her cousin when she delivered thecommencement addressat her alma mater, George Washington University, in 2013.

“As a proud alum of this institution, I celebrate you and I welcome you into the great lineage and legacy of GW,” she said to the graduates. “Today you join the ranks of … statesmen and women like my cousin, Colin Powell.”

Kerry paid tribute to her late cousin onInstagramwhen he died in October 2021.

“Growing up, you were a phenomenal source of inspiration,” she wrote alongside an old photo of Powell outside the White House. “Your accomplishments were tremendous. Your spirit was gloriously generous. From my family, our family, from my neighborhood, our neighborhood. Your legacy will continue to live on, in all of us. Rest In Peace Gen. Colin Powell ❤️🙏🏾.”

Kerry discovered Earl was not her biological father in 2018

After trying to conceive for five years, Earl and Valerie used an anonymous sperm donor to get pregnant with Kerry. However, they kept their decision a secret for decades — even from their daughter.

It wasn’t until 2018 that Earl and Valerie revealed to Kerry they had used an anonymous sperm donor to conceive her, Kerry revealed in 2023.

The decision to open up about her biological father came after Kerry agreed to appear on Henry Louis Gates Jr.’sFinding Your Roots, the PBS series where celebrities can uncover their ancestors and genealogy through DNA testing. Valerie and Earl first revealed their secret to Gates privately, who encouraged them to be honest with Kerry before filming. As a result, her parents texted her in the spring of 2018, inviting her to a family meeting. During their sit-down, Valerie and Earl revealed the truth about how they conceived Kerry more than 40 years prior.

“It really turned my world upside down,” Kerry told PEOPLE in 2023 about the revelation.

But despite the initial shock, the actress shared that her parents’ honesty brought them closer than they had ever been in the past.

She added, “I think I learned a lot about myself, why I struggled and felt incomplete a lot of my life.”

Kerry pokes fun at Earl’s “dad jokes” on Instagram

Kerry frequently posts clips of her father telling corny jokes on her Instagram account with the hashtag #DadJoke. On his most recent birthday (May 23), Kerry even coined Earl as “the Emperor of Dad Jokes” on herInstagram.

Inone of their “Dad Jokes” videosfrom May 2022, Kerry and Earl appeared wearing pairs of “dad-jeans.” Earl remarked on their attire with a denim-themed quip.

“How does a pair of jeans cool themselves off?” Earl asked Kerry in the clip, before declaring, “They pant!”

Kerry even referenced Earl’s wit — and his Instagram presence — inThicker Than Water.

“Earl Washington loves to laugh and create and dream and tell stories,” she wrote. “You need look no further than my Instagram feed to witness how he commands a space with charm.”

Kerry thinks Valerie is the “strongest, bravest woman” she knows

Valerie Washington and Kerry Washington at the newly opened Oscar de la Renta Boutique in NYC in 2004.Brad Barket/Getty

Brad Barket/Getty

Working with her mother on the jewelry campaign was especially meaningful for Kerry.

“It means the world to me that I get to share this with my beautiful mother,” she wrote on Instagram. “She inspires me every single day to be a better daughter and a better mother — to my kids, my companies, my ideas, my dreams and even my inner self.”

Kerry’s selfless love for her mother Valerie was made even more evident when she explained how she likes to celebrate Mother’s Day to PEOPLE. The actress, who isa mother of three herself, prefers to spend the day honoring her own mother — rather than celebrating herself.

“I love celebratingmymom. Because, she’s amazing!” Kerry told PEOPLE when asked about her Mother’s Day traditions. “She is the strongest, bravest woman I know. And she has devoted her life to improving the lives of young people. So, honoring her on this special day always means so much to me."

Valerie and Earl supported Kerry at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony

Earl Washington, Kerry Washington and Valerie Washington in 2024.ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty

ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty

In December 2024, Kerryreceived a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame— a career milestone that made Earl particularly proud.

“It was kind of a bucket list achievement for my dad,” the actress told PEOPLE. “I think it was something my dad had always dreamed of, so it was really special to share this moment with my parents.”

source: people.com