Making it work. Judd Apatow revealed how he has kept things fresh with wife Leslie Mann after 22 years of marriage.
“We’ve been together a long time,” the 52-year-old Knocked Up director told Us Weekly exclusively at the DGA Awards in Los Angeles on January 25. “So, you have to get very inventive, because you’ve gone through all the good gifts and activity concepts.”
Apatow continued, “At some point, you’re like white water rafting or getting mariachi bands because nothing’s off limits.”
This past November, the This Is 40 filmmaker opened up about how he tackles disagreements with the Blockers actress. He regarded engaging in arguments as something that makes for a “healthy” marriage.
“I’ve been married for 22 years. I have fought in every restaurant in Los Angeles: McDonald’s, In-N-Out Burger, Nobu — you name it,” he said on The View one month after the couple fought outside of trendy Los Angeles restaurant Katsuya.
“We engage [in fights] and I think that’s why our relationship is healthy,” he continued. “Then you get a call, like, ‘What do you say? We saw you guys, that you were, like, debating something in a restaurant.’ I was, like, really? Have you been married? Do you know what marriage is?”
Apatow and the Other Woman actress, 47, first met on the set of The Cable Guy in 1996. Mann played the love interest of Matthew Broderick’s character and Apatow served as one of the film’s producers. The pair eventually struck up a romantic relationship and later tied the knot in June 1997.
Apatow and Mann are the parents of Maude, 22, and Iris, 17.
Speaking to Elle in 2012, Apatow confessed that meeting Mann was love at first sight for him. “‘There goes the future Mrs. Apatow,’” the Sick in the Head author recalled himself saying at the time. “I had a soul connection instantly. I meant it. That’s why I remember it.”
The feeling wasn’t mutual for Mann right off the bat. “I was in a panic. Auditioning is so nerve-racking,” she told the publication. “I remember thinking [the director] Ben [Stiller] was cute.”
With reporting by Taylor Ferber
