Jamie Lee Curtis reveals very unorthodox secret to long and happy marriage
Topics: Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Kya Buller
Featured Image Credit: Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images/Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Jamie Lee Curtis has opened up on how she's made her almost 40-year marriage to Christopher Guest work - and it's probably not what you expect.
Curtis, 65, who won an Oscar for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once and her first ever Emmy just last night (9 September) for her appearance in The Bear, married Guest in 1984.
Speaking backstage after her win, she reminisced on her days flogging Activia yoghurts.
Curtis said: "I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I’ve been an actor since I was 19. I’m 65.
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"I sold yogurt that makes you s**t for seven years, and I just never thought in my life that I would get to do work at this level, depth and complexity and intelligence."
She continued: “It’s just been the thrill of my creative life these last couple years that I get these opportunities, so I’m humble and incredibly grateful.”
But aside from the tongue-in-cheek quips about dairy products, comments about her marriage have got everybody talking.
Dishing the dirt in an interview with Entertainment Tonight on 8 September about how to make a marriage last, Curtis said: "Well, you don't leave."
She added: "I’m also sober for a long time. And we have a phrase in recovery: 'If you stay on the bus, the scenery will change'.
"And, you know, that’s marriage. You stay on the bus, the scenery changes. Like, all of a sudden, you literally wanna hate each other, and then the next day, it’s a pretty, sunny day.
"And the dog does something cute. And your child does something cute. And you look at each other, and you’re like, ‘Aw, gosh', and then you’re on another track.”
So there you have it - it seems that the answer is a healthy dose of 'hatred', ultimately outweighs by love.
Explaining further, Curtis said: "Perseverance, patience, gentleness and a really good dose of hatred.”
She added that the 'truth' of the matter is that 'you’re going to hate each other'.
The actor continued: "Not leaving. Not allowing that hatred to then cause you to make some choice that you’re gonna regret. I think that’s really the secret.”
Curtis and Guest adopted two daughters together, daughters Annie and Ruby, who were born in 1986 and 1996 respectively.
Curtis has always been open about differing from her husband.
She told Good Housekeeping in 2018: “My husband and I are opposites. We have been for 33 years, and we always will be.
"He’s an intellectual, and I was from the movie star/alcoholic/drug addict side, where education was not the most important thing. We don’t listen to the same radio station, we don’t read the same paper, we don’t go to bed at the same time."