In the age of power couples, many people wonder what’s the secret to having a long lasting marriage.
After being happily married to her husband, Courtney B. Vance for 23 years, actress Angela Bassett, 62, revealed what she believes is the key to having a healthy, long-lasting marriage.
According to Angela, the key to their long-lasting union was all about finding the “right” partner.
via People:
The actress appeared on PEOPLE (the TV Show!), ahead of her involvement in this year’s Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) virtual gala, where she talked about what’s kept their romance alive going for over two decades. The couple married in 1997 and welcomed twins — son Slater and daughter Bronwyn — in 2006.
“Staying together so long, whether in the industry or not, I think the important thing is that you gotta marry the right person. Make sure you’re both looking in the same direction, basically,” she says. “You’re not clones of each other, but you have similar or closest similar belief systems and, you know, pleasant personalities. Because we all have strengths, strengths and weaknesses, and we want to support one another. But I think also recognizing that we are each individuals, we have our individual dreams and desires and hopes and ways of, of doing things.”
“Be easy, as easy as you can be on yourself,” she continued. “And some of us that are hard on ourselves, be easy on yourself and be easy with others.”
That’s really important advice right there. As people who are hard on themselves, tend to be hard on their mate, which causes trauma. If you show yourself unconditional love, you are then able to show your partner and others unconditional love.
During the interview, the award winning actress also spoke about the kindness of her Black Panther costar Chadwick Boseman who passed away a few months ago.
“[He was] truly, truly one of the most incredible individuals that I have ever had the opportunity to meet and work with,” Bassett said. “He was diligent, professional, kind — he was there.”
Bassett, who played Boseman’s mother Ramonda in the ground-breaking Marvel film, added that he had “a ready laugh” and worked “diligently” on his character of T’Challa, who she described as “his ministry.”
“If we could just take a page out of his book, all of us would be even greater,” she added.
Kindness, dedication to your own personal development, and being with an aligned mate who is on the journey, are the most important relationship foundations. Each person must support the other, while continuing to walk their own path.
