Jamie Lee Curtis has a marriage that has lasted 33 years - one that has overcome hurdles, distance and time.
Falling in love, at first sight, is a cliche that many people scoff at these days but for some lucky folks, it's the beginning of a true love story. And actress Jamie Lee Curtis is one of those rare people although her "love at first sight" story is a bit unique.
Jamie saw actor Christopher Guest in 1984 in a Rolling Stone magazine and felt the sparks come to life, according to Daily Pop Star. "I looked at the man on the right, wearing a plaid shirt and a waggish smirk. I'd never seen him before, but I pointed at him, 'I'm told her producer friend Debra Hill, in a 2004 essay she wrote for O Magazine.
The reason she set her heart on the actor? “For a long time I never smiled, because I was self-conscious about my ugly, dull-looking teeth,” said Jamie to People. “That’s why I developed my smirk—which is why, when I looked at Chris’s smirk in the picture, I basically saw myself. I saw a kindred spirit.”
"That's Chris Guest," said Debra. "He's in a very funny new movie called This is Spinal Tap. I know his agent." Wanting to make the first contact, Jamie Lee called his agent the next day and left her number for Christopher. He never called back though. But clearly, their fate was written in the stars as the couple later bumped into each other at a restaurant.
"He waved at me as if to say, 'I'm the guy you called'. I waved back, 'I'm the woman who called you.' A few minutes later, he got up to leave. Standing 20 feet away, he shrugged his shoulders and put up his hand as if to say, 'I'll see ya.' As he left, I looked down at my plate. The next day, on June 28, the phone rang. On July 2, 1984, Chris and I had our first date at Chianti Ristorante on Melrose. And by August 8, when he left to tape a year of Saturday Night Live in New York City, we'd fallen in love," she penned in her O Magazine essay.
And then six months after exclaiming her intentions of "marrying that man", the two tied the knot on December 18, 1984. Since then, they have expanded their family to include two children they adopted - Annie, right after she was born in December 1986 and Thomas, who they adopted in 1996, according to E! Online.
For more than three decades this family has been happy. Of course, it's not that the couple didn't have their struggles. But Jamie has the answer to that one question - "What's your secret?"
"Don't get divorced," she told Today in 2015. "It's a fascinating thing. I could write a book on marriage called 'Don't Leave.'" But if that left you confused, she expanded on that in an interview with Good Housekeeping. "There’s a recovery phrase that says, 'Stay on the bus…the scenery will change,'" the actress said.
"You think you’re having a bad week, but stay on the bus, because one of these days you'll look out the window and it'll be beautiful," she continued. "I think it can apply to almost anything where you feel unhappy in that moment. I'm not a wild romantic. I'm a realist. I respect him. And I just don't leave."
"He's funny. I'm funny," Jamie told Parade, reported E!Online. "We still figure it out."
References:
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/jamie-lee-curtis-aha-moment
https://www.today.com/popculture/jamie-lee-curtis-has-awesome-advice-staying-married-dont-get-t45481
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a22993869/jamie-lee-curtis-confidence-secrets/
