Some Hollywood marriages crumble — but not for Billy Crystal and his wife, Janice Crystal. The Emmy winner opened up to Us Weekly exclusively about the secret to his 48-year marriage.
“We laugh a lot,” Billy, 70, told Us during a Friars Club event in his honor at New York City’s Ziegfeld Ballroom on Monday, November 12. “We’ve grown together, we’ve parented together, we’ve grandparented together. I’m lucky that I found the person when I was 18.”
The Soap alum acknowledged that his advice isn’t necessarily a secret, but he thinks his union with Janice, 69, works because they simply “just keep listening to each other.”
After tying the knot in 1970, the Crystals welcomed two daughters: Jennifer, now 45, and Lindsay, 41. Actress Jennifer and producer Lindsay each have two children with their respective husbands, Michael Foley and Howie Miller.
When asked to share the best part about being a grandfather, Billy told Us, “[It’s] that you see yourself in your kids first, and now you see your kids and a little bit of yourself in the grandkids, and it’s just a great rejuvenation of your spirit.”
The When Harry Met Sally actor, whose onscreen love Meg Ryan also attended Monday’s ceremony, admitted that he spoils his grandchildren, even though he realizes “spoiling is not a good thing to do.”
Billy has long credited his parents, Jack and Helen Crystal, with setting an example for his own marriage.
“My parents always looked like they loved being together,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2016. “That’s what I took from them, and that’s how my wife and I are.”
With reporting by Nicki Gostin
