Sheryl Lee Ralph Is Renewing Her Vows to Celebrate 20th Wedding Anniversary: ‘I Need a New Ring, Too’ (Exclusive)

Sheryl Lee Ralph and Vincent Hughes are announcing “I do” once more — veil, ring and all!

The Abbott Elementary big name and the Pennsylvania state senator, each 68, tied the knot on July 30, 2005, that means their 20th marriage ceremony anniversary is simply across the nook. And they’ve large plans for his or her marriage milestone, Ralph published to PEOPLE on the 2025 Gotham TV Awards in New York City on Monday, June 2.

When requested concerning the upcoming anniversary, the Emmy winner published that she and Hughes are “going to renew” their vows — or even hinted on the iconic Pennsylvania spot the place they plan to do it.

“Why shouldn’t I be a little bit of a bride again?” the actress quipped to PEOPLE at the crimson carpet on the Cipriani Wall Street, earlier than dishing on what she needs to put on all the way through the rite.

“I’m hoping that I get to have the longest veil in that ‘Rocky Steps’ history,” Ralph mentioned, regarding the 72 stairs main as much as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the place the 1976 boxing drama used to be filmed.

And a veil isn’t the one bridal accent she needs to rock for the instance, which has been twenty years within the making. “I need a new ring too. I need all of that,” she added.

Ralph, in the meantime, had explanation why to rejoice on the Gotham TV Awards. The longtime actress who additionally starred on Moesha, Broadway’s Dreamgirls and Sister Act 2: Back within the Habit used to be venerated with the Sidney Poitier Icon Tribute at the second one annual awards rite, which she referred to as a “full-circle moment” given the titular actor’s function in her profession.

“Mr. Sidney Poitier quite literally opened the door to Hollywood for me by casting me in my first movie, A Piece of the Action,” the big name informed PEOPLE.

She then recalled, “And he cast me over his own daughter, Pamela. Pamela always says to me, ‘Sheryl Lee Ralph, you stole my career.’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘Sheryl Lee Ralph, I expect great things from you.’ And I learned so much in that time with him.”

“I just wish he was here to be able to see what he planted in my heart as an artist, and what I’ve been able to do,” Ralph mentioned, later including that she appears again now and thinks, “Thank you, Mr. Poitier. Thank you very much because I’m still here.”

Plus, she added, “My best days are still ahead of me.”

Ralph up to now teased how she and Hughes might rejoice their 20th anniversary whilst talking with PEOPLE closing fall. The couple, she published, plans to throw a “big party” (“Why go small?”) and — as she hinted extra lately — will most probably rejoice in Hughes’ fatherland.

“Well, his state is Pennsylvania, his city is Philadelphia. Maybe [we’ll celebrate] in the courtyard of city hall or on the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That would be wonderful,” she informed PEOPLE on the time. “I don’t know, but it’ll be fabulous.”

Never leave out a tale — join PEOPLE’s unfastened day-to-day publication to stick up-to-date on the most efficient of what PEOPLE has to provide​​, from famous person information to forcing human pastime tales. 

Ralph ceaselessly spends time in Philadelphia to look her husband, given his line of labor, she up to now published to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“First of all, 20 years, keeping this marriage together, you have to be together some time,” she informed the newspaper in 2022. “Vincent is not able to leave the state the way I can leave the state. In fact, in 20 years of our being together, I’m going to say my husband has been in California maybe 25 times. That means I’m in Philadelphia every two weeks.”

“It’s always like, ‘What are you doing there?’ ‘Um, I’m married to Sen. Hughes. I live here,’ ” Ralph added of common inquiries.