Actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have been happily married for more than 20 years. Such a long-standing romance is a rarity in Hollywood, and Parker recently opened up about how they make their marriage work.
The actress explained couples should embrace each other’s growth and change throughout the years and go with the flow of their partner’s journey. “I feel like [a relationship] changes,” she told People. “Your needs are shifting. You and your partner are going to change. It seems so silly, but I think you’re very lucky if you like the person. I still just really like him. I’m sure I annoy him and he annoys me, but I literally learn about him every day. I’m like, ‘You’re doing what? You’re reading what?’”
In addition to balancing busy careers and marriage, the couple are also parents to eight-year old twins Tabitha and Loretta and 15-year-old James Wilkie. Although they may not lead a lifestyle to which the average family can relate, Parker said communication is key to maintaining close relationships with their children.
“Our lives are unpredictable, and we’re not always here when we want to be,” she said of her and her husband’s jobs. “We can’t always do drop-off and pick-up. But I’m proud that our children talk to us in the way they do. I’m glad they’re curious people.”
As they look to their future, Parker said she looks forward to traveling for pleasure more with Broderick, something that they haven’t been able to do much of because of the demands of their careers.
However, Parker also believes that in their case, absence has made the heart grow fonder.
“I know this sounds nuts, but we have lives that allow us to be away and come back together,” she said in a podcast episode of Girlboss Radio with Sophia Amoruso. “His work life takes him here, and mine takes me there. In some ways, I think that that’s been enormously beneficial because we have so much to share in a way.”
In the same interview, Parker also didn’t gloss over the fact that sometimes marriage is difficult and it requires commitment: “Anytime that any relationship is hard, it’s the point in which you’re deciding, is this worth the investment getting through whatever that thing is?”
It’s so refreshing to see a celebrity couple in a long relationship talk about what makes it work for them. Here’s to many more happy years together for these two!
[H/t People]