This is the first article in a FOXNews.com series about marriage and relationships in honor of "wedding season." Keep clicking back this week and next for more stories!
Divorce and Hollywood have been synonymous since ... well ... Hollywood. And that's still the case, with the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Britney Spears and countless others all recently bustling from bride back to bachelorette.
However, the fairy tale of never-ending nuptials does live happily ever after for some celebrity pairs, like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward and Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne. So what makes marriage work for these special couples?
“Hollywood celebrities do appear to be under far more pressure in their relationships than non-celebrities,” said Sloane Veshinski, a Hollywood-based marriage and family therapist. “But through trust, respect and the ability to be public when it is required for work and private when the focus needs to be on family, a long-lasting marriage is definitely possible.”
Date nights are "what lies beneath" the flourishing 14-year matrimony of Michelle Pfeiffer and her TV producer husband David E. Kelley.
“My husband and I still have date nights, and I look forward to them all week," Pfeiffer told Hello! magazine. “You have to spend time away from the kids and stay up late and talk, go to the movies or do the crossword puzzle together.”
So what is it about continuing to play the dating game that keeps couples happy?
“Dates allow the couple to spend quality time together on the relationship and their own needs as people,” Veshinski said.
For some, old-fashioned passion keeps the love alive.
Will Smith believes that going “Wild Wild West” regularly with his wife of 10 years, Jada Pinkett Smith, is the secret to domestic delight, according to Starpulse.com.
"The key is really, really good sex,” the site quoted Smith as saying. “I'm really good at it.”
However, Veshinski doesn’t believe that sex itself is necessarily the most important aspect of a marriage.
“Healthy and effective communication is probably the most critical factor in the success of a relationship,” she said. “It allows for the couple to be able to discuss and process issues of importance, whether great or small.”
But if you ask Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, who’ve been together for 10 years, they’ll tell you their child is the secret ingredient in their coupling.
“Matthew and I have a good marriage that was made stronger with the birth of our son,” Parker told the Calgary Sun.
“Having a child makes a marriage more romantic. It certainly did with ours. You have this new, wonderful thing in common that you love separately and together in a new way.”
For other stars, the solution is simple: Marriage is a commitment forever, and they will “love and honor each other for all the days of their life."
"A deal is a deal. To me that says it all. Marriage is for keeps," Courteney Cox, who has been married to David Arquette for almost eight years, told Eve magazine.
The “Scream” stars, who have had to battle rumors that they are having marital trouble, also had the words “a deal is a deal” inscribed on their wedding rings.
Country couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who married in 1996, also support the idea of an everlasting espousal.
“My husband and I have made the choice that our marriage is the most important thing to us,” Hill told Redbook magazine. “We respect what we have and understand how we need to feed it."
But even for happy couples, it's not always smooth sailing. After 28 years of wedded bliss, Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t deny that there are rough patches. But his trick is to continue rocking through the tough times.
“Some days Sharon and I don’t talk,” he told Playboy. "Some days we're like two kids. Some days we're ... not even on the same planet. But you get on with it.”
Alternatively, some stars have instead selected to scan beyond Hollywood Boulevard for that special someone.
“There have been many successful marriages between celebrities and ‘ordinary’ people,” Veshinski said. “The secret to success for these relationships is the ability for each individual to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate their different lifestyles.”
For example, Meryl Streep has been merrily married to her sculptor husband Don Gummer since 1978, and Lisa Kudrow and French advertising executive Michel Stern went from “Friends” to tying the knot in 1995.
But for those who still believe that two stars can be tied for all time, there are some miracles.
Bob Hope and Dolores DeFina stayed together for 69 years, in sickness and in health 'til death did them part. Meanwhile, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have 49 years of matrimony behind them and a fervor still on fire.
“Paul and Joanne were married during a time when celebrities had more of a private life,” Veshinski said. “But fame aside, it appears that they have a genuine love for one another that has grown over time.”
The marriage maestros themselves think laughter is the secret to long-lasting love.
“Sexiness wears thin after a while, and beauty fades,” Woodward said, according to brainyquote.com. “But to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that's a real treat."
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