If ever there were a time to celebrate love in all its forms, it may just be this year.
Valentine's Day can sometimes be viewed as a throwaway, both for the self-partnered who see it as a day solely dedicated to couples, and for those long-established pairs who are quick to joke about how the flowers and candlelit dinners of their courting days have long given ways to last-minute cards and nights spent passed out on the couch after shuffling kids to bed.
And, yet, after nearly a year in our sweats, answering our TV's rude "Are you still watching?" queries, most of us desperately need some romance in our lives.
That might mean scheduling a Zoom night with your squad and a slate of rom-coms, channeling your inner Ina Garten to seriously upgrade coach takeout or whatever other gesture—small or extravagant—you can dream up to remind the person you've spent the last 11 months staring at that you're romantic partners in addition to office mates, co-parents and joint home school teachers.
And if you're too drained from all the aforementioned to come up with what to make for dinner, much less a super cutesy show of affection, well, we've got you. Or, rather, Hollywood's long-married set does.
Last summer, Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue—the actress and legendary talk show host in their fifth decade of marriage themselves—vowed to sit down with other industry power couples and then laid out their pearls of wisdom in the pages of their book, What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life.
With everyone from Judges Judy Sheindlin and Jerry Sheindlin to Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka chiming in, the read is chock full of road-tested secrets that can be applied to your own relationship or just held up as proof that love is real and worth celebrating. (Even if that means mainlining chocolates and spending your evening with Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey and their love fern.)
So on this Feb. 14, let's hear it for these forever Valentines and the work they put in to keep that spark aflame.