Billy Crystal Shares Secret To His 52-Year-Long Marriage To His "Kind, Funny And Smart" Wife | They Met When He Was 18

“My parents always looked like they loved being together. That’s what I took from them, and that’s how my wife and I are,” Billy Crystal shared.

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L) Photo by Evan Agostini ; (R) Photo by David Livingston

By Shruti Menon

June 13, 2023

Posted June 13, 2023

Billy Crystal loves making viewers laugh and has been doing so for more than four decades on stage, television, and in movies. Off-screen, the actor-comedian has been in love with his wife Janice for over 50 years. They first met when he was just 18 years old. They tied the knot in 1970 and the two celebrated their 50th anniversary on June 4, 2020. Over the years the couple welcomed two daughters, Lindsay and Jennifer.

Actor Billy Crystal (R) and his wife Janice Crystal arrives at the American Museum of the Moving Image Salute to Billy Crystal at the Waldorf Astoria February 12, 2003 in New York City. (Photo by Lawrence Lucier/Getty Images)

The two had known each other long since the When Harry Met Sally star, now 75, found fame. “We’ve grown together, we’ve parented together, we’ve grandparented together (sic),” Billy shared with Us Weekly in 2018. Born and raised in New York, Janice met her now husband while she was in high school. "I’m lucky that I found the person when I was 18,” he added. The secret to his decades-long marriage? “We laugh a lot,” he shared.

When asked the same question in another interview Crystal joked to PEOPLE, "We see other people." But in all seriousness, he admitted that his partner is a kind, funny and smart person. Describing family life over the years he said, "It just gets better and better."

Actor Billy Crystal, his wife Janice Crystal, and daughters director Lindsay Crystal (2nd R) and Jennifer Crystal Foley attend the premiere of "My Uncle Berns" during the Tribeca Film Festival at UA Battery Park May 6, 2004 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)

Janice who is an actress and producer and likes to keep her life low-key shares daughters, Jennifer Crystal Foley, 50, and Lindsay Crystal, 45 with her husband. They are also grandparents to four grandkids, according to Hollywood Life. Jennifer shares daughters Ella Ryan, 19, and Dylan Frances, 17, with her husband Michael Francis Foley, who she wed in 2000 whereas Lindsay shares two kids with her husband Howie Miller. Billy and Janice enjoy being doting grandparents, telling Us, “[It’s] that you see yourself in your kids first, and now you see your kids and a little bit of yourself in the grandkids, and it’s just a great rejuvenation of your spirit.” He admitted he spoils his grandchildren, even though he realizes “spoiling is not a good thing to do.”

Billy Crystal and his wife Janice pose at his imprint ceremony #TCMFF pic.twitter.com/C3wb4jxmgM
— Variety (@Variety) April 12, 2019

Billy revealed that he's learned a lot from his own parents, Jack and Helen Crystal, who set a great example for his own marriage. “My parents always looked like they loved being together,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2016. “That’s what I took from them, and that’s how my wife and I are.” Through the years the actor is glad he got through many obstacles in life with Janice by his side. The comedian has one piece of advice for those who are looking to make their relationships work for the long run, "Just keep listening to each other," he said.