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Courtney B. Vance Shares the Secret to His 21-Year Marriage to Wife Angela Bassett: ‘Yes, Dear’ (Exclusive)

Courtney B Vance 21 Year Marriage Secret
Courtney B. Vance attends the Los Angeles World Premiere of Marvel Studios' 'Avengers: Endgame' on April 22, 2019.Jesse Grant/Getty Images

Teamwork! Courtney B. Vance exclusively shared with Us Weekly the secret to his 21-year-long marriage to wife Angela Bassett at the Avengers: Endgame premiere on Monday, April 22 — and says it’s all about pitching in to help each other.

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“It’s, ‘Yes, dear. How can I help? What do you need me to do?’” he tells Us of the twosome’s longstanding union.

More than that, however, Vance, 59, says a successful marriage is all about prioritizing what’s most important. “Our focus is on our children and what we need to do as a family,” he explains. “Careers and things follow that.”

The Black Panther star, for instance, turned down a role in Broadway’s A Trip To Bountiful in 2013 in order to honor prior commitments she made to Vance and their children. “I just couldn’t make it work … and then be there for my husband, who is doing Broadway in The Lucky Guy with Tom Hanks,” she told WENN at the time. “We have twins with the nanny … so I had to let that go.”

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The pair, who share twins Bronwyn and Slater, both 13, also make sure to spend quality time together. “We used to go see two and three movies a night,” the actor recalls. “Just fun things.”

Courtney B Vance 21 Year Marriage Secret Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance attend the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2019 in Los Angeles. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

One of those fun things includes Vance throwing his wife — and 300 guests — a party for her 60th birthday on August 16, which also included a special rendition of “Happy Birthday” by Troy Andrews.

Bassett, who said her “I dos” to the Emmy winner in October 1997, told Net-a-Porter in August that her husband is not keen to divorce anytime soon. “He always said divorce is not an option,” the American Horror Story alum explained. “I’ve always told him: ‘Do what you want to do’ – meaning pursue his dreams – ‘because I don’t want you to get to the end and blame anything on me.’”

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Avengers: Endgame is rated PG-13 and is now in theaters.

With reporting by Kayley Stumpe

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