Jeff Bridges has been married to his wife Susan for nearly four decades, all while working in an industry known for its failed marriages: Hollywood.
So it makes sense that Thursday, while doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything, the Academy Award winner was questioned about his secret to marital success. "I read that you've been married to your wife since 1977. To what do you attribute the success of your marriage in an industry notoriously hard on relationships?" the redditor asked.
In response, Bridges revealed three ways to maintain a happy, long-lasting marriage.
1. Loving someone means supporting them.
"This industry is tough on relationships. I've always thought that my wife should have a credit up alongside mine, because I couldn't do what I do without her support. And like the questioner asked, or said, we've been married since 1977, we knew each other for 2 years before that, so she's been able to do all these films with me and we've managed to get through them all together."
2. Little things, like asking how their day was, matter.
"The toughest thing about making movies is being apart from your family. One of the things I try my best to do is call my wife every day, to keep up to speed with what's going on in her life. And tell her what's going on with mine. Often when you're apart from your loved one like that for so long, your connection kind of atrophies unless you keep engaged, even if it's small everyday kind of stuff."
3. Above all else, love each other.
"But another aspect of keeping a marriage together, I think it's important to - you'll think I'm silly - but to love each other, which begs the question: "what is love?" Words that come to mind are openness, understanding, gentleness, kindness, and kind of working on those things, because everyone has a light and a dark side, I think, selfish aspects, and to kind of recognize those in each other and realize that we are going to have our own particular story at any given time, and those stories, they might not be the ultimate truth but they are certainly true for each of us, so to understand that we are each going through our particular version of reality, to respect that, and to nurture being in love, you know? To nurture that."
Wise words from a wise man.
Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Sign up for our newsletter here.
Related
Before You Go
