Relationships can be tricky. Now add in the pressures of fame, and you wonder how famous couples manage to thrive in the spotlight. Well, for every celebrity couple who may crash and burn, there are those whose relationship just grows deeper with each year. Here are six of our favorite celebrity couples who’ve gotten better with age.
TOM HANKS AND RITA WILSON
Oscar-winner Tom Hanks met Rita Wilson on the set of the 1988 movie, Volunteers. He had recently divorced his first wife whom he’d married at 21. That experience led him to state that no one should get married before age 30. Must be something to it: Tom and Rita married in 1988 and have two kids. Their secret? Tom once said in an interview, “I wish there was a secret…We just like each other. You start there.” For her part, Rita has admitted, “… commitment is the foundation. There is such value in the depth of your relationships, your friendships, your marriage, your children, all of that. To me, that’s what makes you feel safe to go out and pursue the things that are more risky.”
SARAH JESSICA PARKER AND MATTHEW BRODERICK
Sarah Jessica Parker is best-known for her role as Sex and the City‘s “Carrie Bradshaw,” a woman constantly looking for her perfect life partner (which she happily found in Mr. Big). In real life, she’s been with fellow actor Matthew Broderick, whom she met in 1991. The two met through her brother after she’d ended a seven-year relationship with Robert Downey, Jr. They married in 1997 and have three kids. So how do two high-profile actors living in the hustle-bustle of New York City keep it together? Matthew says that their big secret is “communicating.” And the best tidbit of advice? “Don’t go to bed mad.” Sounds like something Ferris Bueller would share.
MERYL STREEP AND DON GUMMER
Meryl Streep has won or been nominated for numerous Oscars throughout her Hollywood career. She’s been deemed “America’s greatest living actress.” But her relationship with husband Don Gummer is something she keeps out of the spotlight. She met –and later married — the sculptor in 1978, just a few months after her longtime partner John Cazale (The Godfather) passed from lung cancer. They have four children together. So how do they keep it together? Streep told one interviewer, “You have to listen to your partner’s problems, suggestions, and advice, and accept that you’re not always right. Conversation is the key to a successful marriage.”
RINGO STARR AND BARBARA BACH
The affable drummer for the Fab Four married his first wife, Liverpool hairdresser Maureen, in 1965, at the height of Beatlemania. The two split in 1975. But love struck Ringo again in 1980 on the set of the movie, Caveman when he met his co-star, former Bond girl Barbara Bach. They married in 1981. While Starr admitted that he knew he loved her within days of their first meeting, the couple struggled. His career was tanking, and both were fighting addiction issues. They checked into rehab together and remain clean and sober. In 1989, Starr kicked off the first of his “All-Starr Band” shows, which are still hugely popular. The tough times seem to have made the couple closer than ever. Starr once told People magazine, “I think I love Barbara as much [today] as I did [when we met] and I’m beyond blessed that she loves me and we’re still together.” For her part, Bach has put it more simply: “I love the man, and that’s it.”
JAMIE LEE CURTIS AND CHRISTOPHER GUEST
Halloween actress Jamie Lee Curtis remembers flipping through a magazine and spotting a photo of This Is Spinal Tap star Christopher Guest. On the spot, she told her friend she was going to marry him. Her agent set up a date, but Guest never called. The two later ran into each other at a restaurant, and he made a date to see her the next day. The couple married in 1984 and have two kids. Curtis has been frank about her issues with addiction, and applies what she’s learned to her relationship with Guest: “There’s a recovery phrase that says, ‘Stay on the bus…the scenery will change…You think you’re having a bad week, but stay on the bus, because one of these days you’ll look out the window and it’ll be beautiful… I think it can apply to almost anything where you feel unhappy in that moment. I’m not a wild romantic. I’m a realist. I respect him. And I just don’t leave.”
KEITH RICHARDS AND PATTI HANSEN
Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones has perfected the image of a true rock ‘n roll “bad boy” – but turns out, he’s also a hopeless romantic. In 1979, the legendary guitar hero met his wife, model Patti Hansen at Studio 54. Despite his tough-guy image, he recalls being “over the moon” with excitement at that first meeting. Nine months later, they connected again, ultimately marrying in 1983. The couple has two daughters, Theodora and Alexandra (both of whom are following in mom’s modeling footsteps) So how do they manage the circus of rock life? Not to mention, a cancer diagnosis for Hansen (she’s since beaten it)? Hansen notes that both she and her husband have strong “working-class” roots. They cook together and watch a lot of old movies. As for Richards, he noted in his memoir, Life, “Incredibly, I’ve found a woman. Unbelievably, she is the most beautiful (physically) specimen in the WORLD. But that ain’t it! It certainly helps but it’s her mind, her joy of life and (wonders) she thinks this battered junkie is the guy she loves.”
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