Myrna Colley-Lee: Costume Designer, Not Just an Ex-Wife

Most articles about Myrna Colley-Lee open with one fact: she was married to actor Morgan Freeman. That marriage is real, and it is part of her story. But it is not the whole story. Myrna Colley-Lee spent more than five decades building her own career as a costume designer, set designer, and arts advocate — work that started years before she ever met Freeman and continued long after their divorce.

This article looks at both sides of her life: the public marriage that made headlines, and the quieter, longer career in American theater that shaped her reputation among people who work in the arts.

Quick Facts

Early Life and Education

Public records on Myrna Colley-Lee’s early life are thin, and what does exist online is not always consistent. Several biography sites report that she was born in 1941 in Hamlet, North Carolina. A smaller number of sources give a different birth year and birthplace entirely. Because these accounts contradict each other and none point to a primary or official record, her exact birth date and birthplace should be treated as unconfirmed rather than settled fact.

What is better documented is her education. Colley-Lee earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina, an institution now known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She then went on to Temple University in Philadelphia, where she completed a master’s degree in scenic and costume design. That combination — fine arts training followed by graduate-level theater design study — set the direction for the rest of her working life.

Before costume design became her full-time career, some accounts say she worked in education and in social services in North Carolina. These early jobs are mentioned across a few sources but are not independently confirmed, so they are worth noting as background rather than settled history.

Building a Career in the Black Theatre Movement

Colley-Lee began designing costumes in the late 1960s, a period when Black theater in the United States was gaining new momentum despite limited institutional funding. Over the following decades, she became known as one of the leading costume designers connected to that movement, working with major regional theaters and, later, larger stages across the country.

Her design credits include some of the most respected plays in the modern American repertoire. She worked on productions of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, Fences, Two Trains Running, and Radio Golf — Wilson’s plays are widely studied for how closely their visual details, including costuming, support the story. She also designed for Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, Gee’s Bend, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and The Ballad of Emmett Till, a Goodman Theatre production.

Her work was not limited to costumes alone. Across her career, Colley-Lee also took on roles as a set designer and art director, giving her input into how entire productions looked on stage, not just what the actors wore. In recent years, several sources note she expanded into commercial interior design as well, applying the same visual and spatial sense from theater to a different kind of project.

This is one area where most existing articles about Colley-Lee fall short. Many focus almost entirely on her marriage and divorce, giving her design career only a sentence or two. Her actual body of work — spanning theaters from Cleveland to Pittsburgh to St. Louis to Chicago — reflects a career built over decades, not a footnote to someone else’s.

Marriage to Morgan Freeman

Colley-Lee married actor Morgan Freeman on June 16, 1984, after being introduced by a mutual friend. It was, by several accounts, her first marriage; Freeman had been divorced from his first wife not long before. The couple lived largely outside the Hollywood spotlight, spending much of their time in Mississippi, where Freeman has long kept a home.

The marriage lasted more than two decades. Colley-Lee filed for divorce in 2007, and the divorce was finalized in 2010. Media coverage at the time pointed to strain in the relationship, including reports connected to a car accident Freeman was involved in during this period, though neither party gave a detailed public account of why the marriage ended. The couple did not have biological children together, but Colley-Lee was reportedly close to members of Freeman’s extended family from his earlier relationships.

Online sources disagree sharply on the financial terms of the divorce, with figures ranging from under $200 million to over $400 million in reported settlement value. None of these numbers trace back to a verifiable court record or confirmed statement from either party, so they should be read as speculation, not fact. Readers should treat any specific settlement figure they see elsewhere with caution.

Life and Work After the Divorce

Colley-Lee’s public activity after the divorce has centered on the arts, not on Hollywood. She has served as a commissioner for the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state body that supports arts programs and funding across Mississippi. She also co-founded the SonEdna Foundation, an organization focused on supporting literary arts in the Mississippi Delta region.

In 2017, she helped organize Reflections: African American Life from the Myrna Colley-Lee Collection, an art exhibition at the Columbus Museum in Georgia drawn from pieces she had personally collected over the years. The exhibit reflected her long-standing interest in African American art and her adopted home in rural Mississippi — a collector’s instinct shared by other cultural figures who have built lasting art legacies outside the entertainment spotlight.

In 2022, the state of Mississippi recognized her with a Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Costume Design and Arts Patronage — an honor that credits both her design career and her ongoing support of the arts community. She has continued to give interviews about her design work and her advocacy, including a 2026 conversation on Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Mississippi Arts Hour, where she was introduced as an internationally known costume designer, philanthropist, and arts advocate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Myrna Colley-Lee? She is an American costume designer, set designer, and art director known for her work in the Black Theatre Movement since the late 1960s. She is also recognized as the former wife of actor Morgan Freeman.

Was Myrna Colley-Lee married to Morgan Freeman? Yes. They married in June 1984, separated in 2007, and their divorce was finalized in 2010.

What is Myrna Colley-Lee known for professionally? She is best known for costume design on August Wilson plays such as The Piano Lesson, Fences, and Radio Golf, along with other major theatrical productions across the United States.

Does Myrna Colley-Lee have children? Public sources indicate she did not have biological children with Morgan Freeman, though she was reportedly close to his family from earlier relationships. Details about her family life beyond this are not well documented publicly.

What is Myrna Colley-Lee’s net worth? There is no confirmed figure. Online estimates vary widely and are not backed by verified records, so any specific number should be treated as an unconfirmed estimate as of 2026.

Is Myrna Colley-Lee still working? Public interviews from 2026 describe her as an active arts advocate and designer, still connected to Mississippi’s arts community.

How This Was Researched

I researched this biography by reviewing multiple existing profiles of Myrna Colley-Lee, theater company artist pages that list her actual production credits, and a 2026 radio interview describing her current work. Where sources agreed — her education, her core list of stage credits, and the timeline of her marriage — I treated those details as reliable. Where sources contradicted each other, particularly around her exact birth details and any specific divorce settlement figure, I flagged that disagreement instead of picking one number to present as fact. Most existing coverage of her focuses heavily on her marriage; this article tries to give a fuller account of the design career that exists independently of that.

Accuracy Note

This biography is based on publicly available information, including theater company records, prior published profiles, and public interviews. Some details, particularly around her early life, could not be independently confirmed and are noted as such above. If you spot anything outdated or incorrect, please let us know so we can update it.

Written and researched by Hassan, contributor at ntx magazine.

Hassan

Written by Hassan, founder and editor of NTX Magazine — an independent news and biography publication. Every article is researched and cross-checked against multiple public sources before publishing; see our Sourcing Standards page for details.