Samuel L. Jackson gave a rare glimpse into his 44-year marriage to LaTanya Richardson Jackson.
In an interview with AARP In the October/November 2024 issue, the 75-year-old Pulp Fiction star detailed how he and his 74-year-old wife overcame marital problems and revealed that he’s done “crazy things” during their union.
He admitted that it takes “a lot of tolerance” and that he “shouldn’t give up when it would be easy to give up.” His wife also “learned to ignore his mistakes.”
The well-known actor, who has a 42-year-old daughter Zoe with LaTanya, also noted that “everyone has their flaws.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Jackson discussed his decades-long career, his sobriety and his family life.
Samuel L. Jackson has given a rare insight into his 44-year marriage to LaTanya Richardson Jackson; pictured in March 2022
In an interview with AARP for the October/November 2024 issue, the 75-year-old Pulp Fiction star described how he and his 74-year-old wife have overcome marital problems and revealed that he’s done “crazy things” during their union; photo September 4
The Hollywood personality said of his union: “I’ve done some really crazy things in my marriage, you know?”
Referring to his wife, he added: ‘She has that too, in her mind or whatever it is in reality, but you have to say, ‘Is that a rupture crime? Or is it just that we need to spend some time together and get some understanding about it?’
“There are certain things you learn to ignore about people — that she learned to ignore about me. And one of the things she had to accept is that I go to work.”
Regarding his current acting career, he said, “I’ll keep working all the time until it happens.”
The couple celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary on August 18.
LaTanya told People magazine in 2022: ‘In the beginning we always said that the most revolutionary thing black people could do was stick together, raise their children with the core of a father and a mother, [because] Everyone pretends that this isn’t the dynamic of the African-American family, that this is just about children being raised by women. We know that’s not true.’
She stressed: ‘To change that narrative, we decided to say, ‘We’re going to stick together no matter what. We’re going to get through this.’
The couple met while they were students at college, Jackson attending Morehouse and Richardson attending Spelman.
Jackson is the cover star of AARP’s October/November 2024 issue
Samuel L. Jackson has given rare insight into his 44-year marriage to LaTanya Richardson Jackson
The couple are parents to 42-year-old daughter Zoe; pictured in 2008
In addition to their personal, family bond, the man and woman also work together.
LaTanya directed Samuel in the 2022 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s musical The Piano Lesson.
The film version will be released in theaters on November 8, followed by a Netflix premiere on November 22.
Set in 1936, the story “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.