Is often asked:
How have you stayed married so long?
Hmm.
The eyes soon settled on Jacqueline Witte, a tall blonde actress who, in 1949, became his first wife, and the mother of his first three children.
And then.
He broke through with a starring part in the 1953 Broadway production of William Inge\’s Picnic, and it was during the run that he met Joanne Woodward, a blonde, delicate-featured actress from Georgia, who was in the cast as an understudy and became his second wife.
It would appear that the secret to a long marriage is thus to have two, the first as a trial so that you can actually work out what it is that you really want in a mate.
I\’m sure that\’s a comfort to first wives everywhere.
…and a comfort to first husbands.
Just ask Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez… etc.
I suspect most people just can’t afford a second divorce. or are too tired. The wealthiest men and women seldom stop with a second spouse if they are the sort to get bored easily.
Mel Brooks had the same secret to a long marriage as Paul.
Mel had another simple key to a happy marriage that I sure wish I’d heard when I was a lot younger: “Be sure she gets along well with her father.”
Of all the married couples I’ve known over the years, from the man’s point of view at least, that is a far better predictor of a happy marriage than anything else, like, oh, whether the man deserves a happy marriage.
“Be sure she gets along well with her father.”
The same goes for women: be sure your husband-to-be gets on well with his mother, and listen very carefully to what he says about her – you’ll probably be dealing with whatever issues they have.