The world knows Lin-Manuel Miranda as a creative powerhouse. To many, Lin-Manuel is the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright behind In The Heights and Hamilton, the songwriter behind Moana and Encanto, and an advocate for his native Puerto Rico. However, one woman knows Lin-Manuel in a different way: as a husband, and a loving father. That woman is Vanessa Nadal, Lin-Manuel’s wife for more than a decade.
Vanessa will also likely be Lin-Manuel’s date for the 2022 Met Gala. Lin-Manuel is one of the hosts and cochairs for the gala benefiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Lin-Manuel will host alongside fellow co-chairs Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Regina King at the May 2, 2022, event. Tom Ford, Adam Mosseri, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour will also continue their roles as honorary Met Gala co-chairs. As the fashionista event unfolds and the celebs begin to arrive at New York City’s Met Museum, here’s what you need to know about Lin-Manuel’s wife.
Vanessa Nadal Is An Attorney, A Chemical Engineer & A Professor
While some creative people marry those who work within the same industry, that can’t be said of Lin-Manuel and his wife. Vanessa is a graduate of M.I.T. with a degree in chemical engineering, according to a LinkedIn account associated with her. She worked as a research and development intern at Johnson & Johnson before being brought on as an R&D scientist with the company.
In 2007, she shifted paths. She left Johnson & Johnson and enrolled at Fordham University’s School of Law. She achieved her Juris Doctorate in 2010. In 2011, she became an associate at Jones Day, an international firm that “formidable legal talent across multiple disciplines and jurisdictions.” She left Jones Day in 2016, and in 2019, became an Adjunct Professor at Fordham. She also co-founded the school’s first “law school program on Cosmetics Regulation, covering the governmental, industrial, and societal regulation of cosmetics and other personal care products.”
Lin-Manuel Met Vanessa In High School
Vanessa and Lin-Manuel attended Hunter College High School together, though they never dated as teenagers. Lin-Manuel crushed on her from afar. “She was gorgeous and I’m famously bad at talking to women I find attractive,” Lin-Manuel told The New York Times in 2010. “I have a total lack of game.”
In 2005, Lin-Manuel found Vanessa on Facebook. He invited her to a Freestyle Love Supreme show, a hip-hop improv show. The couple didn’t really connect, and the shy Lin-Manuel had a friend ask Vanessa for her number so that he could invite her to another show a few weeks later. “When he came on stage, I thought, I really like this guy,” Vanessa told the NYT. “He’s really, really smart.”
Afterward, the couple bonded over Grand Theft Auto, JAY-Z, and Marc Anthony. “After that, we very quickly gave each other keys to our apartments,” said Lin-Manuel.
Vanessa Married Lin-Manuel In 2010
Lin-Manuel proposed to Vanessa in 2009. In 2017, he tweeted how “the missus & I got engaged in Madrid the day before Halloween 2009,” while sharing a picture of Vanessa with her new ring. “I took this on Photobooth while she called her parents.” The couple tied the knot at the Belvedere Mansion in Staatsburg, New York, on September 5, 2010, according to The New York Times. During the reception, Lin-Manuel surprised his wife with a performance of “My Life” from Fillder On The Roof.
“All of Vanessa’s close friends and family rehearsed for a month in secret, leading up to the reception,” Lin-Manuel captioned a YouTube video of the performance, per PEOPLE. “What we lack in polish, we hopefully make up for in joy and love. In any event, everyone in this video has one thing in common: We’d do anything to show Vanessa how much we love her.”
Vanessa & Lin-Manuel Have Two Kids Together
Vanessa & Lin-Manuel Have Two Kids Together
Vanessa gave birth to her and Lin-Manuel’s first son, Sebastian, in 2014. The couple welcomed their second child, Sebastian, in 2017. “Int. Hospital Room. Night. [The screams reach a delirious crescendo. FRANCISCO MIRANDA enters. He is 7 pounds and 13 ounces.] Intermission,” tweeted Lin-Manuel when his second child was born.