We all know the stereotypes about Hollywood marriages. The jaded among us see them as carefully orchestrated public relations moves between attractive celebrities that are annulled before they can celebrate their first anniversary. But not all marriages in the entertainment business have been train wrecks.
All the people on this list have been married at least 20 years and they all involve some of the most successful entertainers ever. Take a look at some of the couples that have made marriage in Hollywood a goal worth having.
Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson (34 Years)
One of Hollywood’s most beloved couples didn’t exactly start as a storybook romance. Actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson first met on the set of ABC’s Bosom Buddies in 1981 and starred in a film together in 1985 but when they went public with their relationship in 1986, Hanks was still legally married to his first wife, though they were separated. Hanks and Wilson married in 1988 and have two children together in addition to the two children Hanks shared with his first wife. They’ve been mainstays of the red carpet ever since.
Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne (40 Years)
In 2016, rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, TV host Sharon Osbourne, announced they were splitting up after a marriage that began in 1982. Thankfully, they ended up working it out and staying together. The couple, who helped pioneer celebrity reality TV with their MTV show “The Osbournes,” started dating in 1979, when Sharon was Ozzy’s manager, and got married a few years later. They have three children together.
Kate Capshaw & Steven Spielberg (29 Years)
Like many others on this list, it took some practice at marriage before actor Kate Capshaw and director Steven Spielberg found a lasting love. Both had been previously married when they wed one another in 1991, Capshaw had already been married twice, in fact. The pair, who worked together on Spielberg’s 1984 movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” have been going strong since then and have five children together.
Barbara Bach & Ringo Starr (41 Years)
Who said love can’t last in rock ‘n’ roll? Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and actor Barbara Bach have been happily married since 1981, making them one of entertainment’s longest-lasting pairs. The musician and the former Bond girl said “I do” in a quiet civil ceremony in London, which was certainly more low-key than most celebrity weddings. Both had been previously married and had children from those relationships.
Michael J. Fox & Tracy Pollan (34 Years)
In 1986, actors Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan played teenagers who were dating each other on NBC’s Family Ties. At the time, both of them were actually dating other celebrities (Fox was with Nancy McKeon and Pollan was with Kevin Bacon). The pair started dating each other in real life in 1987 and got married in 1988. The actors have four kids together, including twin daughters.
Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick (34 Years)
Speaking of Kevin Bacon, the Footloose star also got married to a fellow actor in 1988 and they are one of Hollywood’s most recognizable couples. He and Kyra Sedgwick tied the knot that year and have been together ever since. The pair have two kids together and everyone in the family has a matching tattoo that contains everyone’s first initial. You know what they say: the family that inks together, stays together!
Bonnie Bartlett & William Daniels (71 Years)
The longest-running marriage in Hollywood today is also one of the most inspirational. Actors Bonnie Bartlett and William Daniels, who are both in their 90s, got married in 1951, giving them nearly 70 years of matrimony at this point! The pair has worked together plenty during their union, including each winning two Emmy Awards for their work on NBC’s St. Elsewhere in the 1980s. They played a married couple on screen in that show and later worked together on ABC’s Boy Meets World. The couple has two children together.
Will & Jada Pinkett Smith (25 Years)
One of the most recognizable couples in Hollywood for the past couple of decades has been Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. The two actors got married in 1997 and have been lighting up red carpets ever since. Jada, who hosts the Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, often discusses their marriage frankly on her series, including the things that make their relationship truly unique. The Smiths have two children together in addition to a son from Will’s first marriage.
Denzel & Pauletta Washington (39 Years)
One of Hollywood’s best actors also has one of the best marriages in the movie business. Denzel and Pauletta Washington first met in 1977 while both working on a TV project but, once they started dating, she turned down two of his proposals! Denzel finally wore Pauletta down and she accepted his hand in marriage in 1983. The two actors share four children together, including Golden Globe nominee John David Washington.
Don Gummer & Meryl Streep (44 Years)
If you’ve seen acting icon Meryl Streep on a red carpet in the past 40 years, you’ve probably seen Don Gummer standing right next to her. The couple has been married since 1978, when they tied the knot in the garden of the home owned by Streep’s parents. Unlike many pairs on this list, Gummer and Streep have different professions, with him being an acclaimed artist. They have four kids together, all of whom are involved in the entertainment business in some way.
Brad Hall & Julia Louis-Dreyfus (35 Years)
Brad Hall and Julia Louis-Dreyfus worked together on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in the mid-1980s, when they were already a couple. They started dating in the early part of the decade when they were both students at Northwestern University. Hall, known best as a TV writer and producer, and Louis-Dreyfus got married in 1987. They have two sons together who are now all grown up.
Sting & Trudie Styler (30 Years)
Another marriage that has lasted despite immense fame is the one between music icon Sting and Trudie Styler, who is a classically trained actor and filmmaker. The pair started dating in the early 1980s and dated for about a decade before getting hitched in 1992. They’ve agreed that their differing career paths and the space their work gives them from each other has kept their love healthy for so long. They’ve had four children together during their lengthy relationship.
Bryan Cranston & Robin Dearden (33 Years)
When actors Bryan Cranston and Robin Dearden first met, he actually held a gun to her head. Well, it was a prop gun, but still. They were working together on a CBS show called Airwolf, in which Cranston played a guy holding some sorority members hostage, one of whom was his future wife. They started dating in 1987 and eventually got married in 1989. They have a daughter together, Taylor Dearden, who is also an actor.
Angela Bassett & Courtney B. Vance (25 Years)
Like some other power couples on this list, actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance met while they were studying drama in college. Both were at Yale University in the 1980s but didn’t actually start dating until 1994 and got married in 1997. The two award-winning thespians have twin children and have continued to support and work with one another, even writing a book together in 2007.
Pam Dawber & Mark Harmon (35 Years)
Another great marriage between actors is that of Pam Dawber and Mark Harmon. They were one of Hollywood’s “it” couples when they tied the knot in 1987, with Harmon being named People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” and Dawber continuing her successful TV career. The pair had a private ceremony that day and have chosen to keep their relationship low-key after all these years, rarely showing up on red carpets together. They have two sons who are both involved in the entertainment business.
Kelly Preston & John Travolta (29 Years)
Actors Kelly Preston and John Travolta first met while they were working on a movie together in 1989 but she was unhappily married at the time, so it was a few months before they started dating. The pair eventually got married in 1991 and have been spotted together on many red carpets since. In 2009, they suffered an incredible tragedy when their oldest son, Jett, died at the age of 16. But the couple and their two other children have apparently only gotten closer since then. Unfortunately, in 2020, Kelly Preston also died of breast cancer.
Faith Hill & Tim McGraw (26 Years)
In any relationship involving two stars, it’s rare that both would be equally massive but that’s the case with Nashville’s most powerful pair. Country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw first met in 1994 but didn’t get involved romantically until 1996, when they toured together. At that time, Hill was engaged to someone else but broke it off to date McGraw, marrying him later that year. They have three daughters and continue to record and tour together.
Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones (22 Years)
Before his death in 2020, Kirk Douglas had one of Hollywood’s longest marriages with Anne Buydens — and it appears his famous son is trying to keep pace. Oscar-winner Michael Douglas has been married to actor Catherine Zeta-Jones since 1999, forming one of Hollywood’s most recognizable couples today. The pair met in 1998 while they were promoting separate movies at the Deauville Film Festival in France.
Steve & Nancy Carell (27 Years)
One of the funniest couples in Hollywood has to be Steve and Nancy Carell. They actually met when Steve was teaching improv at Chicago’s Second City and Nancy was in one of his classes. Later, they both worked on Saturday Night Live and on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, with Nancy working under her maiden name, Nancy Walls. They got married in 1995 and have been spotted together plenty in the years since, even creating a TV show together with TBS’s Angie Tribeca.
Samuel L. & LaTanya Richardson Jackson (42 Years)
If you’ve seen Samuel L. Jackson on a red carpet at nearly any event in his career, you’ve probably seen LaTanya Richardson standing right next to him. This couple of actors met while they were both working in Atlanta theater, well before either of them were stars. They got married in 1980 and have had a great relationship ever since, with Jackson revealing their big secret in 2019: “I guess we still love each other”. They have one daughter together, Zoe Jackson, who has worked as a producer on shows like Top Chef and Project Runway.
Jon Bon Jovi & Dorothea Hurley (33 Years)
If you ask Dorothea Hurley, she’ll say that when you’re married to a massive star, you have to get used to being ignored. The wife of rock star Jon Bon Jovi has joked that she always gets completely overlooked by servers when they go out to a restaurant together, opting to chat with him instead. But Bon Jovi certainly doesn’t ignore her, as evidenced by the fact that they’ve been happily married since 1989. The couple met when they were just kids in school and they now have four children together.
Bono & Ali Hewson (40 Years)
One of the longest marriages in rock ‘n’ roll belongs to U2 frontman, Bono, and his wife, entrepreneur Ali Hewson. Both hail from Ireland and, like Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley, actually met when they were classmates as children. They got married in 1982 and have stuck together through the massive wave of stardom Bono rode when his band became huge. They have two daughters together and the singer has described their life together as “a magic carpet ride”.
Patti Scialfa & Bruce Springsteen (31 Years)
Another music icon who’s enjoyed a lengthy marriage is Bruce Springsteen. He and fellow New Jersey native Patti Scialfa have been married since 1991 but their musical partnership goes back even further. A teenage Scialfa tried to audition to sing with Springsteen’s early band in 1969 but he turned her down. She eventually joined the E Street Band in 1984 and their onstage chemistry turned into a real romance. Today, they still perform together and have three grown kids.
Warren Beatty & Annette Bening (30 Years)
Warren Beatty had a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors for decades — until he met Annette Bening. The couple first crossed paths on the set of the 1991 film “Bugsy” and it didn’t take long for their relationship to go from professional to personal. The actors got married in 1992 and they now have four kids together. While both have said there’s no secret to their long relationship, Beatty has said it took him “seven or eight seconds” to know he was in love with Bening.
Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen (27 Years)
When actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen met on the set of a movie in 1994, neither was expecting to find lasting love. Both had already been married and divorced — Danson had done so twice — but they played a married couple in the film and life would soon imitate art. They got married in 1995 and have an adorable marriage that’s full of love. “He does tell me every single day of my life I’m beautiful”, Steenburgen has said of her famous husband. Cheers to that!
Regis & Joy Philbin (50 Years)
In May 2020, Regis and Joy Philbin celebrated 50 years of marriage — an amazing milestone for any couple but especially one in Hollywood. The beloved pair tied the knot in 1970 for what was the second try at marriage for Regis. The TV icon reportedly still “worships the ground Joy walks on” after all those years and one of the main ways they keep their spark alive is by working out and playing tennis together several times a week. They have two daughters together. Unfortunately, Joy also died in 2020.
