Ted Danson on “Three Men and a Little Lady”: E! News Rewind
If anyone was under the impression that Ted Danson was the perfect husband, let him disabuse you of that notion.
“I used to think that I was Mr. Enlightenment, madly present and in love with Mary,” he said of his relationship with his wife of 28 years, Mary Steenburgen, while on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend in April 2020. “And true—that was true. But, I also noticed, Oh, I used to like half-listen and then figure out what she was saying, and then decide what I was going to say and then interrupt her. ‘Cause I’m going fast, I’m going fast here.”
And the Emmy winner admitted that only when the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to travel, film and photo shoots, gatherings, in-person meetings, and pretty much everything else related to their careers as actors and activists did he realize that it might behoove him to slow down.
“There’s so many little silver linings in our relationship,” he added. “I think we might have gone really fast until the end. And taking this moment almost feels like a little gift.”
So basically, the star of Cheers, The Good Place and Mr. Mayor took advantage of his unusually light schedule to become a better partner.
OK, so now he may be the perfect husband. Or getting there.
“Happy 25th Anniversary!” Steenburgen wrote Oct. 7, 2020, in a celebratory Instagram post. “This was SUPPOSED to be a sweet loving anniversary photo but you have a big piece of salad in your teeth. So there it is. Thank you for making me laugh today and every single one of the last 9,125 days. You are the goofiest, wisest, kindest, dreamboat in the world. True, that is a big ass piece of salad but even that doesn’t mar your legendary beauty.”
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There’s always something.
But their mutual endless appreciation of each other is also a product of having been through this whole marriage thing before (once for Steenburgen and twice for Danson), and learning about themselves in the process, which created a more fertile opportunity for finding just the right person to be with for the rest of their days.
Because even Mr. and Mrs. Enlightenment had to have their eyes opened along the way.
Opportunity ended up knocking on the set of the 1994 period family drama Pontiac Moon, starring Danson as a lusting-for-adventure science teacher fascinated by the moon landing in 1969 and Steenburgen as his wife who, after suffering a trauma, won’t even the leave the house.
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Steenburgen had divorced British actor Malcolm McDowell in 1990 after a decade of marriage and two kids together, actress Lilly McDowell and director Charlie McDowell. Danson,
