Samuel L. Jackson and his wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson opened up to People magazine about their marriage and relationship.
“Stay together no matter what.” This is the pact that Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson made at the start of their relationship. The couple, parents of a daughter, Zoe (39), met in high school before getting married in 1980. Since then, they have never left each other. “At first, we thought the most revolutionary thing black people could do was to stay together, raise their children together and not forget the chance of having a father and a mother, since everyone loves pretending that’s not how it works in African-American families,” the 72-year-old actress told People magazine.
41 years later, the two are more united than ever. But it wasn’t always easy, especially with the 73-year-old comedian’s substance addiction in the ’90s. It was his wife who stood by him and helped him get into rehab. Today, he has now been fully recovered for over 30 years and says he is grateful to his wife. “She gave me the chance to be the man I was meant to be.”
Every July, the couple stops working and takes a family vacation with their daughter. Sometimes they enjoy a boat trip with a few friends, but the producer imposes a rule: “Don’t wake anyone. You sleep, if you want to sleep. But afterwards, we meet and we all eat together. For the “Shaft” star, the recipe for a successful marriage is simple: “Two people who respect and love each other.”
“We learned that there is always better than you”
In 1991, when he was released from drug addiction, his role in the Spike Lee film “Jungle Fever” made his career take off. Today, his films, including the “Star Wars”, “Avengers” and even “The Incredibles” franchises, have collected no less than 18.5 billion dollars worldwide. But one of the kings of the box office wants to remain humble. “Where we come from and thanks to the people who raised us, we learned that there was always someone better than you (…) A job is a job. We already consider ourselves very lucky to have one.
The duo also teamed up for the new series “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” released on March 11. This short film is about a 91-year-old man, Ptolemy Gray played by Samuel, who suffers from dementia. A project that is close to his heart since his grandfather and his mother suffered from Alzheimer’s.
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