Who is Dave Chappelle’s wife? All about Elaine Chappelle

Dave Chappelle rarely shares the stage when he performs, but the wildly popular (and at times polarizing) comedian is one half of a double act back home.

The former “Chappelle’s Show” star married wife Elaine Chappelle more than two decades ago, and the couple have built a solid partnership and a family together in the years since then. However, despite the funnyman’s massive fame, his significant other has largely avoided the spotlight, eschewing social media.

So, who is Dave Chappelle's wife? Read on to learn about Elaine Chappelle, the woman who’s been by the comic’s side for so long.

Dave and Elaine Chappelle met in New York

When Dave Chappelle sat down with Howard Stern in 2001, he described Elaine Chappelle, née Mendoza Erfe, as a “Filipina from Brooklyn,” and he said he met her in that same New York City borough.

While he didn’t say exactly when they got together, he explained that it was before his career really took off, noting, “She was with me when I was poor.”

Dave and Elaine Chappelle get married

The pair swapped vows in a private ceremony in 2001.

“I love marriage,” Chappelle raved in a later visit to "The Howard Stern Show." “I actually love marriage; yes, I do. I’m going to tell you something — you eat better. Usually. I feel the quality of my life as a married man is substantially better than when I was single.”

She’s a mom of three

Elaine and Dave Chappelle have three children together, whom they have maintained out of the public eye.

Their oldest child, son Sulayman, was born the same year the couple wed in 2001.

Two years later, they welcomed another son, Ibrahim, and in 2009, they added daughter Sanaa to the family.

Where they call home

The family has a 65-acre estate (and possibly much, much more) in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Dave Chappelle's father, William David Chappelle III, lived in the city and the comedian would visit the state often, he told Stephen Colbert during a "The Late Show" appearance in 2017.

Elaine Chappelle has been through it all

Dave Chappelle made headlines when he abandoned the third season of his eponymous Comedy Central show in 2005 and suddenly left the country, flying to South Africa without telling anyone from the network — or anyone at home.

In a 2006 interview with Oprah Winfrey, he said he “bounced” without a word to his wife.

“The situation kind of warranted it,” he explained. “Because certain people around me were putting my sanity in question, I would meet too much obstruction if I would say I’m doing something like this. ... It wasn’t that I didn’t tell my wife, it was like, ‘I’m not telling her until after I’m gone,’ which was a mistake. But it wasn’t a ‘crazy’ mistake. ... I took off, then I called my wife.”

Then, a couple of weeks later, he returned home. He did not, however, return to his hit show and the $50 million he stood to make if he had stayed on. That’s something he said left Elaine Chappelle “salty.”

“My wife’s still a little salty at me,” he told Conan O’Brien that same year. “She’s not mad at me, but don’t think you’re going to walk away from $50 million and your wife’s just going to be cool with it.”

She tips him off when there’s trouble

Dave Chappelle is known for never playing it safe on stage, and despite facing backlash at times for the jokes he makes, he plans to keep it that way. In fact, he ignores his negative press, unless Elaine Chappelle tells him not to.

“My wife, if it gets real bad, she’ll let me know, like, ‘Oh, you should look into this,’” he said during a HOT 97 interview. “But for the most part, I try not to pay attention to it because you don’t want to be careful as a comedian.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com