Marlo Thomas turned 85 on November 21. The actress has been married to Phil Donahue for more than 42 years, even though she said she would never get married. This is an interesting contradiction. On the special day, there were rumors that the actress spent time with her husband.
The first time they met was in 1977 when Thomas was a guest on the show that Donahue was in charge of. After some time, they remembered that their first meeting was “love at first sight.” People says that the couple got married in 1980. After they had a child together, Thomas took on the role of stepmother to Donhue’s five children from a previous relationship.
Even though they had been married for most of the last 30 years, Thomas said in 2013,
I never wanted to be married. To this day I’m not sure I believe in marriage. I believe in my marriage, but I don’t believe in marriage as an institution. I’m not sure it isn’t rigged against the woman.
Because getting married to Donahue was so important to Thomas, she had a hard time making up her mind.
It was a very big thing for me to see that marriage could be a roomy enough place for my dream and his dream. I had to meet the right kind of man, and the world had to change a lot and I had to change a lot,
said Thomas, according to Cape Cod Times.
But Thomas and Donahue have been happily married for more than forty years, even though there have been misunderstandings and worries about marriage. People says that the actress thinks a relationship between “two whole people, not one and a half,” has a better chance of working than one between “one and a half” people. Thomas is also a loving parent to all of his children. ” She once said,
I really like his kids. It’s a real treat to be around them.
The couple wrote a book together. It came out in 2020 and was called “What Makes A Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share With Us The Secrets to a Happy Life.” During their talk about the book, they brought up:
We started to wonder if there really is a secret sauce to a successful marriage. And that’s when we decided to break an ironclad rule of our marriage – for the first time, ever – and decided to work on a project together. As different as these couples’ stories are, they share a common plotline: that of two people joining hands and stepping up to the most challenging, invigorating, inspiring, infuriating, thrilling, terrifying, delightful, and heavenly job on earth — making a marriage last.
When asked what makes their marriage work, they both said that communication is the key. Thomas said,
Through the years you learn that everything is not that big a deal, and this isn’t going to break us up no matter what, so you get used to saying, Ok, let’s just talk it out.
Donahue joked,
The secret of good communication? Screaming helps. At least then you know if whether the person you’re screaming at is listening. Then go in the other room and count to ten.
He added,
A little humor certainly in a marriage goes a long way.
