Samuel L. Jackson has given rare insight on his 44-year marriage to LaTanya Richardson Jackson.
In an interview with AARP for its October/November 2024 issue, the 75-year-old Pulp Fiction star described how he and his wife, 74, have overcome marital challenges while revealing he has done ‘crazy things’ during their union.
He admitted it takes ‘a lot of tolerance’ and ‘not giving up when it would be easy to give up’ – with his wife ‘learning to ignore’ his faults.
The renowned actor — who shares 42-year-old daughter Zoe with LaTanya — also noted that ‘everybody’s got flaws.’
Elsewhere in the conversation, Jackson discussed his decades-long career, sobriety and family life.
Samuel L. Jackson has given rare insight on his 44-year marriage to LaTanya Richardson Jackson ; pictured in March 2022
In an interview with AARP for its October/November 2024 issue, the 75-year-old Pulp Fiction star described how he and his wife, 74, have overcome marital challenges while revealing he has done ‘crazy things’ during their union; pictured September 4
Speaking about his union, the Hollywood fixture said: ‘I’ve done s**t in my marriage that’s crazy, you know?’
Referring to his spouse, he added, ‘She has too, in her head or whatever in reality, but you got to go, “Is that a breakup offense? Or is it just that we need to spend a little time together and get some understanding about it?”
‘There are certain things that you learn to ignore about people — that she’s learned to ignore about me. And one of the things she had to accept is that I’m going to go to work.’
He said about his ongoing acting career, ‘I’m going to go to work all the time until, you know, it’s time.”
The couple celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary on August 18.
LaTanya told People magazine in 2022, ‘In the beginning we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their children with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, [because] everybody likes to pretend that that’s not the dynamic of the African American family — that it’s just children out here being raised by women, which we know is false.’
She emphasized, ‘In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We’ll figure it out.’
The couple met while they were studying in college as Jackson attended Morehouse and Richardson attended Spelman.
Jackson is the cover star of AARP’s October/November 2024 issue
Samuel L. Jackson has given rare insight on his 44-year marriage to LaTanya Richardson Jackson
The husband and wife are parents to 42-year-old daughter Zoe; pictured in 2008
In addition to their personal, familial tie, the husband and wife duo also work together.
LaTanya directed Samuel in the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s musical The Piano Lesson in 2022.
The film iteration is due in theaters on November 8, followed by a Netflix premiere on November 22.
It takes place in 1936 and ‘follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which documents the family history through carvings made by their enslaved ancestor,’ according to the logline.
