Love Isn't Dead! 11 Celebrity Couples Reveal the Secret to Their Long-Lasting Marriages in Hollywood

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Victoria Beckham and David Beckham, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos & more star spouses spill on keeping the romance alive year after year

By Rebecca Macatee Jun 07, 2016 11:00 AMTags
Tom Hank, Rita Wilson, Kelly Ripa, Mark Conseulos, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Getty Images

Love isn't dead, people.

It's alive and well—even in Hollywood—and these long-lasting celebrity marriages are proof of it! These relationships have stood the test of time, which is no easy feat for any couple, let alone ones living their lives in the public eye. 

It's Couples Week, so we're going to forget about the doom and gloom that is breaking up and divorcing and focus instead on these star spouses! So how is it that these Tom and Ritas keep the romance alive year after year? Here's what they have to say...

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1. Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson (28 Years): This down-to-earth duo is approaching 30 years of marriage—that's an accomplishment for anyone, but it's practically a miracle in Hollywood! Tom has two children from a previous marriage (son Colin, 38, and daughter Elizabeth, 34) and two sons with Rita (Chet, 25 and Truman, 20).

On OWN's Oprah's Next Chapter, Tom told Oprah Winfrey his connection to Rita "is as concrete as me sitting here."

"Not that marriage doesn't come close to being hell in a handbasket sometimes," he said. "But we both know that no matter what, we'll be with each other—and we'll get through it." 

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2. David Beckham & Victoria Beckham (16 Years): The soccer star and the Spice Girl are still together all these years later! These days, their empires have expanded far beyond sports and music, and they also have three sons (Brooklyn, 17, Romeo, 13, and Cruz, 11) and one daughter (Harper, 4) together.

In an interview with ABC News, David said maintaining their relationship was "pretty easy."

"We've been together for 18 years, we've been married for 16 years so you trust each other's judgment," he said. "I think that has worked for us."

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3. Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith (18 Years): Their romance has been targeted by the tabloids for years, but these A-listers are still going strong. Even with two teenagers at home (daughter Willow is 15, son Jaden is 17), Will and Jada manage to keep their relationship a priority. So how do they do it? "Really at the end of the day it's just not quitting," Will told Entertainment Tonight. "You can't expect it to be easy, it's like our marriage was the most difficult, grueling, excruciating thing that we have ever taken on in our lives. And you know were just not quitters."

"If there is a secret I would say is that we never went into working in our relationship," he continued. "We only ever worked on ourselves individually, and then presented ourselves to one another better than we were previously."

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4. Sarah Michelle Gellar & Freddie Prinze, Jr. (13 Years): Back in 2001, Howard Stern made a bet with the then-engaged Freddie that he and SMG wouldn't still be married 10 years later, but the Prinzes beat the Hollywood odds! They've been married for 13 years now and are the parents of daughter Charlotte, 6, and son Rocco, 3.

Their secret to a lasting marriage? "God, if I knew, I would write a book and retire," Sarah Michelle said in an interview with MSN's Wonderwall. "I wouldn't be here right now. I mean, it's work. You have to work at anything. It's any relationship in your life. You have to nurture it and take time with it."

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5. Faith Hill & Tim McGraw (19 Years): Country's cutest couple have a lot in common career-wise, but they're also both extremely family-oriented. Their three daughters (Audrey, 14, Maggie, 17, and Gracie, 19) are the center of their lives, but mom and dad make time for each other, too.

So how is their marriage so strong after all these years together? "I don't think there's a secret," Faith told GAC (as excerpted by TasteOfCountry.com). "You just have to love the skin you're in, basically. You have to walk this life together. There will be times, ups and downs, but you have to essentially like the person that you love. I think it's important to laugh a lot and have a good time. Life is so short. It sounds contrived but it's the truth."

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6. Hugh Jackman & Deborra-Lee Furness (20 Years): This duo from Down Under celebrated twenty years of marriage this past April. They have two kids together (daughter Ava, 10, and son Oscar, 16) and dad, at least, is pretty sure he knows the secret to marital bliss: "Happy wife, happy life."

"That's the slogan," he revealed on Sunrise, an Australian new program, quipping that it's "drummed" into him every day.

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7. Cindy Crawford & Rande Gerber (18 Years): This model couple have two beautiful kids (daughter Kaia, 14, and son Presley, 16) and also count George and Amal Clooney as their BFFs. What keeps them together? "Tequila," Cindy joked to Us Weekly (her hubby Rande & George are business partners and co-own a tequila label, Casamigos.)

But what really keeps these two together after all these years? "We started as friends and we remained friends," Rande told Entertainment Tonight. "You have to just keep that friendship and fun in the relationship."

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8. Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick (27 Years): After nearly thirty years of marriage, these two seem happier than ever. They have two beautiful children together (daughter Sosie, 24, and son Travis, 26—both of whom are actors) and by all accounts, a very happy home life.

Kevin and Kyra don't claim to be marriage experts, though. "We talk a lot, and we make each other laugh," the Footloose actor told Parade magazine. "People want to know, 'How do you do it in Hollywood?' I don't have the answers. We just like to be together."

9. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi (7 Years): Ellen and Portia wed in 2008 shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in California. They've made it clear they aren't planning to have any children, but as Portia told Out magazine, shed "never been happier" than she is with just the two of them.

"There comes some pressure in your mid-30s, and you think, Am I going to have kids so I don't miss out on something that other people really seem to love? Or is it that I really genuinely want to do this with my whole heart? I didn't feel that my response was ‘yes' to the latter," said the Arrested Development star. "You have to really want to have kids, and neither of us did. So it's just going to be me and Ellen and no babies—but we're the best of friends and married life is blissful, it really is."

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10. Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick (19 Years): Forget about Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big—we're all about SJP and Matthew! They have three children together (son James Wilkie, 13, and twin girls Marion and Tabitha, 7) and seem to have a picture perfect life in NYC.

Matthew credits his and Sarah Jessica's successful marriage to their unbreakable friendship. "We really are friends beyond everything else and we talk a lot," he told Meredith Vieira on her talk show back in 2014. "She's really funny, she makes me laugh. That's good."

Sarah Jessica feels the same way. "I love Matthew Broderick. Call me crazy, but I love him," she told Harper's Bazaar. "We're very devoted to our family and our lives. I love our life. I love that he's the father of my children, and it's because of him that there's this whole other world that I love."

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11. Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos (20 Years): The Live! host and her actor hubby met on the set of All My Children, but their relationship has been the opposite of a soap opera. Kelly and Mark have their hands full with three teenagers (Michael, 19, Lola, 14, and Joaquin, 13), but mom and dad still fit in a date night when they can.  "We just like each other a lot. I love my husband. I think he's awesome," Kelly revealed to pal Andy Cohen on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live. "We've been together a really long time. We try to do spicy things together all the time."

And what do those "spicy things" include, per se? The occasional racy pic, said Kelly, and "lots of sex."

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