Jack Black and his wife Tanya Haden first met when he was 18. They reconnected in 2005 and got married a year later.
Some Hollywood celebrities manage to keep their relationship private and under wraps to protect it from negative media attention. In the entertainment industry, having an intimate and secretive marriage is also a craft that needs to be honed over years. One of the best artists in this genre is beloved comedian Jack Black, 51, and his wife of 15 years.
The Jumanji star and his musician wife, Tanya Haden, 49, knew each other for years before falling in love with each other. The 49-year-old mom-of-two grew up in California just like Black.
She is the daughter of a musician and has a fine arts degree in film and animation. However, she is famous as a cellist and vocalist. She and her two sisters are known together as Haden Triplets. Their father, late jazz artist Charlie Haden, had welcomed them into the world of music and they have been taking his legacy forward, as per CheatSheet. Haden is also an artist, whose works have been exhibited in the Rosamund Felsen Gallery, according to The Things.
It was the arts that brought the couple together the first time. They met for the first time as teenagers at Crossroads School, a high school for performing arts and science. However, the Goosebumps actor was too shy back then. As per the Irish Examiner, he told The Sun for an article called What I Wish I’d Known at 18 that he regrets not asking her out earlier.
"I wish I’d had more courage to ask out Tanya Haden, the woman who eventually became my wife. We met at school at 18 – and I wasted 15 years waiting for my chance," he said. "She was everything I could wish for. Talented, beautiful, and a wonderful performer on stage. She was part of a band called The Haden Triplets. We first worked together on a student film but we did not date," Black added.
He also added that he was a fan of the Haden sisters and would watch them perform in local venues. However, he used to watch from the sidelines and then dart off. They also ran into each other randomly over the years but they didn't start dating until 2005.
The School of Rock actor actually dated writer and comedian Laura Kightlinger for almost 10 years before parting ways with her, as per CheatSheet. Months after the break-up, he and Haden reconnected at a mutual friend's party and things just clicked.
When they first began seeing each other, the Shallow Hal actor referred to Haden as his soul mate. He explained to Howard Stern how "his new girlfriend was always ‘mysterious and fantastical’ to him when he was admiring her from afar, and that she has become his soul mate."
He popped the question to her in December 2005 and they got married in February 2006 by eloping. The couple welcomed their first child, Samuel Jason “Sammy” Black, together on June 10, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Useless Daily. On May 23, 2008, Black and his wife welcomed their second son, Thomas David Black.
While he identifies as an atheist, he changed since becoming a father. He reportedly decided to raise his children in the Jewish faith and has been going to a synagogue with them. Becoming a parent does change people after all. The Kung Fu Panda actor is a devoted dad and loves to praise his kids. He also loves taking them to basketball games, as per The Things.
He realized he wanted to be a dad when he met his King Kong co-star Andy Serkis' kids. "Something happened when I was on King Kong. The fellow who plays King Kong, Andy Serkis, was there with his wife and kids, and he let me read a bedtime story to his kids. And I thought, Oh, I should have a kid. I want to have a family. There was an emptiness that started to develop after that. Now I’m happiest just swimming with my boys in the ocean," he told Parade.
The Holiday actor is a child of a broken home and has gone through the tragedy of losing his brother in 1989 to AIDS, as per Useless Daily. As a child, he reportedly blamed himself when his parents divorced, as per The Netline.
He began doing drugs like cocaine to cope with the pain and guilt at the age of 14. He also didn't ever want to get married and while he overcame his drug use, his opinion on marriage didn't change until he started dating Haden. "Before Tanya, I had always felt like marriage was not for me. I didn’t like the way it worked out with my parents. I didn’t ever want to be in a divorce, so I was never going to get married… What makes it work? I love her! I’d had decades of flings where, as soon as it was over, I was looking for the exit. I never feel the need to escape with Tanya," he told Parade.
References:
https://www.thethings.com/everything-we-know-about-jack-blacks-wife-tanya-haden/
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30592113.html
https://www.uselessdaily.com/movies/jack-black-23-fascinating-facts-about-the-actor/#.XjsYaS2ZOi4
https://parade.com/428468/dotsonrader/exclusive-jack-black-interview/
https://thenetline.com/the-untold-truth-of-jack-black-wife/
Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by (L) Stephen Shugerman, (R) Frazer Harrison
