Samuel L. Jackson and wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson celebrated 44 years of marriage in August
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LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson on Sept. 4, 2024. Photo:
John Nacion/Variety via Getty
Samuel L. Jackson is giving an inside look at how he and wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson make their marriage thrive.
The Piano Lesson actor, 75, is the cover star of AARP The Magazine‘s October/November 2024 issue, speaking in a wide-ranging interview about his career, sobriety and family life.
In the conversation, Jackson shares how he and LaTanya, 74, have worked through marital issues when it would otherwise be “easy to give up” on each other.
It takes “a lot of tolerance, because everybody’s got flaws, and not giving up when it would be easy to give up,” he says.
Samuel L. Jackson Reflects on His Longevity in Hollywood: ‘I’ve Been Kind of Fortunate’ (Exclusive):max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(530x260:532x262):format(webp)/Samuel-L-Jackson-AARP-091924-1-2c0ca9121f0944868e88c3decd4cdcee.jpg)
Courtesy of AARP The Magazine
“I’ve done s— in my marriage that’s crazy, you know? She has too, in her head or whatever in reality, but you got to go, ‘Is that a breakup offense?’ Or is it just that we need to spend a little time together and get some understanding about it?”
“Or,” the Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist star continues, “there are certain things that you learn to ignore about people — that she’s learned to ignore about me. And one of the things she had to accept is that I’m going to go to work. I’m going to go to work all the time until, you know, it’s time.”
Jackson and LaTanya, who share daughter Zoe, 42, marked 44 years of marriage in April.
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LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson on April 18, 2024.
Kayla Oaddams/FilmMagic
When the couple starred on the cover of PEOPLE in 2022, they shared how they once made a pact to stick together no matter what.
“In the beginning,” LaTanya said at the time, “we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, since everybody likes to pretend that that’s not the dynamic of the African American family. That it’s just 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren out here being raised by women, which we know is false.”
“In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We’ll figure it out,’ ” she said.
The Piano Lesson is in select theaters Nov. 8, then on Netflix Nov. 22.