The relationship Jamie Lee Curtis has with her husband, Christopher Guest , is one of the most adorable and long-lasting in Hollywood .
After 37 years, they’ve been through it all together: love at first sight, recovery from addiction, and their daughter’s transition.
RELATED STORIES
Their incredible story proves that when two people are meant to be together, love always wins.
How They Met
It was love at first watch for Jamie Lee. When she saw him in the mockumentary, Spinal Tap , she said to her friend , Debra Hill, the producer and co-writer of Halloween , “Oh, I’m going to marry that guy.”
Since Debra knew his agent, she gave the number to Jamie who called him the next day.
Sadly, he never called. But that wasn’t the end of their love story. They ended up having a chance meeting at a restaurant in West Hollywood.
Jamie Lee was having dinner with some friends when she and Christoper made eye contact from across the room.
“He waved to me as if to say, ‘I’m the guy you called.’ I waved back: ‘I’m the woman who called you.’ A few minutes later, he got up to leave.”
“Standing 20 feet away, he shrugged his shoulders and put up his hand as if to say, ‘I’ll see ya.’ As he left, I looked down at my plate,” she wrote in an essay for ‘O’ magazine.
The next day, Christopher finally called and they scheduled their first date .
Their first date was on July 2 at Chianti Ristorante on Melrose.
When they flew back on August 8, the couple were very much in love.
They didn’t want to leave their love bubble, but Guest has to start his new job on Saturday Night Live (SNL) .
When Christopher Gave Up ‘SNL’ For Her
Guest only did one season on SNL alongside stars like Billy Crystal and Martin Short. He tried to do even less time than that by getting out of his contract. Truth is, he never wanted to leave Jamie Lee.
They Marry
Jamie Lee’s prediction was correct — she did marry “that man.” This took place only a few months later on December 18, 1994, at Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner’s house. Both of Jamie Lee’s late parents, Tony and Janet, were there.
“We were home by 7:30. My sister Kelly is still mad at me,” Curtis revealed in a radio interview.
“If anybody here knows Kelly Curtis…please let her know that I publicly, in front of the universe, apologized for going home from my wedding at 7:15 when she wanted to keep dancing and actually have a wedding.”
When love is all that matters, Jamie Lee and Christopher didn’t need a long wedding.
“Chris and I sort of stood there, we swayed back and forth for our wedding dance, we cut the cake, we ate a piece, and it was like, ‘OK, I’m good, you?’ ‘Yeah, let’s go.'”
They Start A Family
A few years after their wedding, they adopted their two children — Annie in 1986, and Ruby in 1996. Later on, the Halloween star revealed that the reason she adopted her kids was due to infertility issues.
When She and Christoper Supported Their Daughter’s Transition
When Annie (formerly Thomas) transitioned, Jamie Lee said that she and Guest were watching with “wonder and pride .”
Jamie Lee and Ruby even gave a joint interview to People where Ruby shared the moment she came out to her parents.
“It was scary — just the sheer fact of telling them something about me they didn’t know,” Ruby said.
“It was intimidating — but I wasn’t worried. They had been so accepting of me my entire life.” Now that’s how you do parenting!
Jamie Lee was honest about there being a learning curve for her and Guest.
“It’s speaking a new language,” she said. “It’s learning new terminology and words. I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I’m going to blow it.”
When They Shared Marriage Advice
As the author of several children’s books, people want to read what Jamie Lee has to say. So when asked what the secret to their marriage is, she got frank. “Don’t get divorced,” she told Today .
“It’s a fascinating thing. I could write a book on marriage called ‘Don’t Leave,'” she continued.
We’d read that! She had similar sentiments in an interview with Good Housekeeping . “There’s a recovery phrase that says, ‘Stay on the bus…the scenery will change,'” the actress said.
“You think you’re having a bad week, but stay on the bus, because one of these days you’ll look out the window and it’ll be beautiful,” she continued.
“I think it can apply to almost anything where you feel unhappy in that moment. I’m not a wild romantic. I’m a realist. I respect him. And I just don’t leave.”
When Christopher Was Jamie Lee’s Rock During Sobriety
For many years, the actress was addicted to opioids. “I was the wildly controlled drug addict and alcoholic,” she told Variety . It all started after she underwent minor surgery to fix her “puffy eyes.”
No one knew of her “10-year-run” with substance abuse for many years.
Her sister, Kelly, discovered it in 1998, and in 1999, Jamie Lee confided in her husband. He, of course, was there for her as she recovered from the addiction.
She’s now been sober for 22 years.
“I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family,” she told People .
“Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment… bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything.”