Tommy Dorfman married partner Elise Williams in a secret Santa Monica ceremony in 2023, but the couple’s adorable love story was nothing the actor expected.
“I was eager to clock in for my Samantha Jones era,” the “13 Reasons Why” veteran wrote in a Vogue essay published Thursday. “I wanted to explore my newly minted womanhood as freely as possible in the city infamous for short-term flings.”
She had just finalized her divorce from businessman Peter Zurkuhlen a month prior to revealing in July 2021 that she was transgender. She wasn’t looking for anything serious after all of that change.
(“Today is about clarity: I am a trans woman,” Dorfman told Time magazine at the time. “My pronouns are she/her. My name is Tommy.” She added in an accompanying video, “Some people moved houses during the pandemic. Some people changed genders.”)
Back from a “stint” in L.A., after settling into New York City life, she downloaded the dating app Hinge, expecting to find those short-term flings. Instead, she was met with the profile of her “undeniably beautiful” future wife — whom she classifies as a “private” person.
The pair were engaged within two months but waited a year to move in together. However, “[O]ne might argue taking in a Great Dane puppy at our six-month mark was a smidge irresponsible,” Dorfman noted jokingly.
The couple knew they wanted to elope, and on a trip to Los Angeles they discovered that the state of California offers confidential marriage certificates, so their marriage wouldn’t be discovered by the media. And naturally, being so close to Tinseltown, concierge same-day wedding services were available.
“A few hours later, a man showed up at our hotel in Santa Monica, took photos of us on our iPhones and a disposable camera I bought at CVS that morning, and we ended the day at a concert without telling a soul what we’d done,” Dorfman wrote.
The arrangement worked for the couple, she wrote, because they had tried their best to keep their relationship out of the spotlight. An internet frenzy had ensued in 2022 after Dorfman mentioned she was engaged in an episode of Rachel Bilson’s “Broad Ideas” podcast, and that experience committed them to privacy.
Upon their return to their Brooklyn abode, they revealed the news to close friend and photographer Hunter Abrams, who took pictures of the pair in the wedding dresses they purchased at L.A.’s Dover Street Market before their unplanned elopement.
They’ve kept their marriage quiet in the year since, enjoying the honeymoon phase without prying eyes. But now, Dorfman wrote, they’re ready to begin “celebrating [their] love with the world” and reaffirming “the importance of people seeing trans and queer love en vogue.”
