Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson revealed that the secret to their 41-year-long marriage is actually extremely straightforward—they simply decided a long time ago to stay together.
Jackson first met his wife in college and the two have been together ever since. They are also proud parents of one daughter, Zoe. In a new cover story for People, the Tony-nominated actress explained that, “In the beginning, we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their children with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, since everybody likes to pretend that that's not the dynamic of the African American family. That it's just children out here being raised by women, which we know is false. In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We'll figure it out.’” Jackson added, “It's two people who respect each other, love each other and look out for each other.”
But both confess that while marriage really is as simple as that, it doesn't mean that it's always been easy. When Jackson became addicted to drugs in the early '90s, Richardson helped him get into rehab and he has now been in recovery for over 30 years. “She gave me the chance to be the man I was supposed to be,” he said as, shortly after he got out of rehab, his career took off thanks to his role in Spike Lee's 1991 Jungle Fever. But even though his illustrious filmography has now led him to being this year's recipient of the Oscar's lifetime achievement award, the actor is still cautious of assuming the title of the “Box Office King.” He explained, “Coming from the kind of backgrounds we come from and the people that raised us, we learn that we're not better than anybody else. A job is a job. We were fortunate enough to have a job.”
Richardson adds that her husband is truly “an anomaly” in Hollywood because he genuinely “loves every job he does. Snakes on a Plane, I'm like, ‘Really?’” But while they both love to work, they also make sure to prioritize spending their down time with family and friends, which is why every July they stop working and often take their daughter and her friends out on a boat. But Jackson says there is one rule regarding these summer excursions: “Don't wake anybody up. You sleep when you sleep. Then we come together and eat.” And these days, the couple have found a way to even spend time together at work, joining forces as producing partners on the Apple TV+ limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, which Jackson also stars in. “I'm amazed at how busy we are in our seventh decade,” Richardson said. “I'm grateful because I think of all the things that could be.”
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