Terry Crews and Rebecca King-Crews are celebrating 35 years of marriage, and sharing the “key” to their long-lasting love, People reports.
Ahead of the couple’s marriage milestone on Monday, July 29, the college sweethearts chatted with People about how they stay happy together after all these years, starting with the things they learned from the early days of their marriage.
“First of all, the advice I always give is that you can’t love someone and control them at the same time. And I think that’s been the key,” Terry, 55, told People at Entertainment Weekly’s Annual Comic-Con Bash 2024 on Saturday, July 27.
Terry Crews and Rebecca King-Crews Share Secrets of Their Marriage in New Memoir ‘Stronger Together’
“A lot of things that I did wrong early in our marriage didn’t involve love,” he adds at the San Diego event. “It involved control.”
Chiming in, Rebecca, 58, says, “And he almost died.”
“Well, the fact is, we almost broke up and that was the thing,” Terry clarifies. “And I’ll tell you this: once I learned, it became a new relationship.”
Adding to the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star’s note about control, Rebecca says, “My advice is that the key principle in any relationship is forgiveness.”
“You cannot hold grudges and stay together,” she adds.
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The longtime loves — who share five children — also shared a glimpse into their anniversary plans: a romantic dinner.
“We’re going to go to dinner because we’ve just been swamped,” Terry tells PEOPLE. “We just got back from Hawaii. We’ve been to Santa Barbara. I’m headed to the Olympics in Paris, and so we’re trying to squeeze this in.”
The actor also shared the couple is “going to have a big soirée” to celebrate in the fall.
To celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2019, the couple threw a star-studded bash at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills with famous pals like Olivia Munn and Stevie Wonder in attendance.
At the time, the couple told PEOPLE that “in the 30 years since we were first married, there were times it seemed life shifted into hyper-speed — our five children going from diapers to high school, the seven-year period in the NFL on six different teams, careers in music and entertainment that we started launched last week but in fact has crossed into 20 years.”
“Through all of this, these obstacles have actually made us stronger,” the pair continued, “owning the realization that our feelings followed our decisions and not the other way around.”
“Choosing to love each other year after year has proven to be the best decision we’ve ever made,” Terry added. “Time has always had a wonderful way of showing us what truly matters.”