Marriage isn’t easy and having a happy marriage is downright difficult. We live in a society that now accepts divorce, and I think that’s a good thing because as a woman, I know that in the past, a woman had to just live with her “lot in life.” I’m glad we have the option to leave, and I’m happy that men also have that option if they’re miserable. With that said, most of us who are married hope to remain married, and above all, we hope we can have some measure of happiness. When it comes to Hollywood, we’ve mostly given up on seeing celebrities live a happily-ever-after scenario.
However, there are exceptions and we love them for giving us all a reason to keep believing in true love! For example, Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, were married for decades before they both died. Another example is Ronald and Nancy Reagan, both actors before their life in politics, had a happy ending. We can add to the list legendary actor Tom Hanks and his wife of more than 30 years, country music singer and actress Rita Wilson. Tom fondly remembers seeing Rita on “The Brady Bunch” in the 1970s and thinking Rita was a cutie. In fact, in an interview with People, he was very specific.
“I was actually at a friend of mine’s house when it aired and I remember thinking ‘that girl’s cute,'” Hanks said. The episode that Rita appeared on was “Greg’s Triangle” in 1972, and she played the role of Pat Conway. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Hanks shared the story about his first meeting with his future wife. “When we first looked at each other there was definitely a kind of a, ‘Hey, this is the place!’ I felt that anyway,” Hanks said. “I think the end result is that we got married for all the right reasons.” But what are the right reasons to get married?
Tom says that the key to his long and happy marriage is to ride through the ups and downs together. Like any marriage, theirs likely has the ups and downs that he’s referring to, but it’s up to both people in the relationship to keep the spark alive. “I think that any long term relationship if you are lucky enough to fall in love and have that spark ignite that its kind of responsibility for both people in the relationship to keep that spark going and to keep that flame going,” Rita said to Access. He added, “Over the years and over time you’re going to have ups and downs, it’s not going to be all fabulous every second of the day.”
On Instagram, Rita echoed her hubby’s sentiment, saying, “Fires need to be tended to, stoked, added to, watched. As long as there is a spark you’ll always have a fire. I love you, Tom.” So there you have it, folks. Keep the spark alive. Watch this interview with Rita below.
