Candace Cameron Bure is celebrating 28 years of marriage with her husband, Valeri Bure, this June, but the actress admitted to Us that their nearly three decades together hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
“No one has a perfect marriage,” Candace, 48, told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting her upcoming movie Unsung Hero. “There are trials along the way, but I’m grateful we’ve stuck through them.”
On how their marriage is still standing, Bure credits “a lot of love and respect for each other,” adding, “Really [it’s] by the grace of God [we’re still together], because you go through ups and downs.”
After being set up by Candace’s Full House costar Dave Coulier in 1994, Candace and Valeri, 49, tied the knot in 1996. The couple went on to welcome daughter Natasha in 1998 and sons Lev and Maksim in 2000 and 2002, respectively.
“Above all, we just want what’s best for each other,” Candace told Us. “We want to do everything we can to stay together. And a lot of times it just means being selfless and putting your sense of control aside and going, ‘How do we work on this together?’ There’s a lot of humility in marriage, let’s just say that. You’ve got to put your pride aside.”
For Candace, sacrifice is also a big part of building a family. The Full House star took a step away from acting in the early aughts to raise her young children, and she tells Us that her decision to do so affected her career and her mental health.
“When I laid down my career a long time ago and wanted to stay home and raise my children, I didn’t know if I’d ever have a career again, even though I really desired to always have one. That felt like a massive loss,” she said. “And then when you’re like, ‘Hey, 10 years later, does anyone want to see my face again on television?,’ it feels like a sense of climbing back up the ladder, trying to say, ‘I’m here, can you just give me a job?’”
Candace said she has had to climb that ladder when it comes to rough stretches in her marriage, as well. “I’ve also felt that way starting from scratch in marriage when you’re in the pit of that and you’ve got to work back up,” she told Us.
Her family life has also helped her career, though. Candace shared with Us that she was able to draw from her marriage and experience parenting for her latest role.
“I relate [to the film] in so many ways,” she said of Unsung Hero, which she stars in and also produced. The movie tells the story of David Smallbone (Joel Smallbone), his pregnant wife Helen (Daisy Betts) and their seven children, who leave Australia to rebuild their lives in America.
“Being married to my husband who’s an immigrant that came over at 17 years old, making his way to be here, live in this country,” Candance said.“I [also] relate so much to Helen as a mom, and I’m like, I want to be Helen. I aspire to be like that rock.”
Unsung Hero premieres in theaters on April 26.
