Who Is Anna Romano? All About Ray Romano's Real-Life Wife

Ray Romano is well-known for being TV married to Patricia Heaton on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond for nine seasons between 1996 and 2005. In his new Netflix series, No Good Deed, Romano will play husband to Lisa Kudrow. In real life, he's been married to the same woman for almost 40 years.

Romano and his wife Anna Romano were married in 1987 after working at the same bank before Romano hit it big as a stand-up comedian and television star. As an executive producer and writer for Everybody Loves Raymond, Romano and Anna's real-life marriage often served as inspiration for Raymond episodes. She even made a cameo appearance in the sixth season premiere as one of the other moms with children at Raymond's children's school.

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So who is Anna Romano? Here's everything we know about Ray Romano's real-life wife, who has inspired multiple projects for the comedian.

Who is Ray Romano's wife?

Ray Romano is married to Anna Romano. The pair have been married since 1987, which means they're coming up on their 40th wedding anniversary.

What does Anna Romano do?

Anna Romano is a stay-at-home mom who raised the couple's four children while Romano made Everybody Loves Raymond. According to multiple interviews, Anna has no interest in show business like her husband, but does keep Romano grounded.

"Today when I left very early, I went over and kissed my wife. I thought she was asleep and as I'm walking out the door all I hear is, 'Don't say anything stupid,'" he joked during a Good Morning America interview in 2023.

In the same interview, Romano applauded his wife for wanting to be with him before he had massive amounts of sitcom money. "I was living at home—I lived at home until I was 29. I was not a catch, you know? I give her credit cause she married me before any of this happened."

Related: Ray Romano Shares the Best Take on Finding Fame, Family and the Secret to a Happy Marriage

How did Anna and Ray Romano meet?

Anna and Ray Romano met in the 1983 when they were both bank tellers at the same bank. They began dating in 1985 after Romano had left the bank to pursue comedy more seriously. They married two years later.

"I always tell her she took a gamble because she went out with a guy who lived at home and rode a bike to work," he said when the couple appeared on the Double Date with Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue podcast in 2022.

When did Ray and Anna Romano get married?

The pair tied the knot in 1987, nearly 10 years before Romano became a household name on Everybody Loves Raymond. The couple have known each other for over 40 years.

Do Anna and Ray Romano have any children?

The couple have four children together. Their eldest and only daughter Alexandra was born on August 26, 1990. The duo then welcomed twin boys, Matthew and Gregory in 1993. Their youngest son, Joseph, was born five years later in 1998.

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Anna is a breast cancer survivor

Romano's wife was diagnosed with Stage One breast cancer in 2010. They initially kept the diagnosis private so they could process it as a family, but opened up about their journey to People in 2012 in hopes of helping other families going through a similar situation. The couple explained that they had also kept Anna's diagnosis from their children until they knew what the outcome would be.

"We waited to get the results from genetic testing, and it was negative," Anna said in the interview. "We wanted them to have all the information and not to worry if there wasn't a reason. So we told them, and my youngest goes, 'If you're going to be all right, can I forget about it?'"

Anna went through chemo, radiation, and surgery before she made it into remission.

"You appreciate everything so much more. It's a cliché that life is short, but it is. We're lucky," Romano said in the People interview.

Anna's breast cancer story also served as inspiration for Romano's film Somewhere in Queens, which he co-wrote, directed, and starred in. "I injected all that as much as I could. And then we also wrote characters and wrote story, but most of it came from a real place," Romano told People when the film premiered last year.

Related: Ray Romano Details Health Scare and Life-Saving Heart Procedure