We hear a lot about Hollywood couples whose relationships are falling apart, so it’s always nice to hear about a pair whose love has stood the test of time.
Take 72-year-old movie star Jeff Bridges as an example.
In Hollywood, he is a rare find. Since he got married to Susan in 1977, he has always been true to her.
And Jeff Bridges says that after 45 years together, his marriage keeps getting better.
Bridges has been one of Hollywood’s most enduring and well-known movie stars for many years. His big break came in the 1970s, when he was nominated for an Oscar for his parts in The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which starred Clint Eastwood.
He continued to do well in big movies like King Kong and Tron, and his roles in Starman and The Fisher King earned him a lot of praise. But his most famous role was as “The Dude” in the cult classic The Big Lebowski, which he played in 1998. This movie has led to fan conventions and even a philosophy (and countless orders of White Russians at bars.)
In 1975, while making the western comedy film Rancho Deluxe, the veteran actor met his wife, Susan Geston. Susan was a waitress at a ranch in Chico Hot Spring, where a hot bath scene was filmed.
“I saw this girl while we were shooting a scene in a hot tub at a place called Chico Hot Springs. I couldn’t stop looking at her. She was beautiful, but she also had two black eyes and a broken nose (from a car accident, I later learned). Jeff Bridges wrote in 2014, “Something about her beauty and scars kept me interested.”
Jeff would have to work hard to win Susan’s love, though. Once, Jeff asked the pretty waitress out after work, but she said no.
He asked again after a few days, but the answer was the same. But Susan finally gave him hope by saying, “It’s a small town; maybe we’ll see each other later…”
After a while, they finally got together on a night off.
After a night of dancing, they got along well, and it wasn’t long before the waitress packed her bags and moved to California with Bridges.
Geston wanted to get married, but Bridges wasn’t sure if he was ready to make that kind of commitment.
In 1977, Geston told Bridges that she would go her own way if he didn’t marry her. Bridges knew that he would always be sorry that he let his love go.
Jeff told OWN, “I said, ‘Oh God, I can’t let this woman go.'” “I saw an old man thinking, ‘Man, there was this girl from Montana, why didn’t I marry her?'”
So he proposed, and a few days later, they got married.
After 45 years, Bridges and Geston still love each other a lot.
They have learned a lot about how to talk to each other and stick together through hard times. There is one grandchild and three grown daughters.
Isabelle, their eldest daughter, was born in 1981. The other two girls were born in 1985 and 1983, respectively.
Bridges has said that he still loves his wife as much as he did when he first saw her working as a waitress.
Bridges said, “What you don’t know until you get married is that you think all the other doors have closed, which is true.”
“But this door you open [when you get married] leads to a hallway full of other great doors: kids, deeper intimacy, adventures, and so much more.”
Of course, every relationship has its ups and downs. But Bridges and his wife didn’t run away when they hit a bump in the road. Instead, they learned how to deal with bumps in the road together, which means talking to each other often, honestly, and openly.
“If you switch partners every time things get hard or you’re a little unhappy, you don’t get the richness that comes with a long-term relationship,” Bridges said.
“As people, we are very different, but we celebrate that instead of letting it drive us apart. I like how smart she is, and I’m sure the girls do too. I’ve been very lucky.”
Bridges feels like his marriage keeps getting better after 45 years. He said, “What they don’t tell you about marriage is that it keeps getting better in every way.”
