Ted Danson recently shared that the end of his hit TV show “Cheers” made way for his romance with Mary Steenburgen, his wife of 28 years. Danson played Sam Malone, the lead character in the long-running series, which aired from 1982 to 1993.

Danson reunited with co-stars John Ratezenberger, George Wendt and “Cheers” co-creators Les Charles, James Burrows, and Glen Charles for a panel discussion about the show during the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas. Danson admitted that he was why “Cheers” ended after 11 seasons. According to PEOPLE Magazine, he said, “In my defense, we’d all been talking for a couple of years about ending the series.”

Danson then added, “Okay, sorry. It was me.” The “Good Place” star explained, “My life was a hot mess at the time, and if I had not stopped and gotten it together, I would never have met my wife.” They met for the first time in 1983 when he auditioned for the role of her on-screen husband in the biographical drama romance film “Cross Creek.” “I was married. He was married. That was not our moment,” Steenburgen said of meeting Danson in a 2021 interview with PEOPLE.

The two reunited in 1994 when they co-starred as an on-screen couple in “Pontiac Moon.” Both had ended their marriages by that time. Steenburgen divorced her husband in 1990, while Danson and his wife split in 1993. The two established a friendship while working together on “Pontiac Moon.” Steenburgen told PEOPLE, “I wasn’t ready for anything like a relationship. We just kept working together and becoming better and better friends.”

The friendship bloomed into love during a canoe trip with friends in Mendocino, California. Danson told PEOPLE in 2021, “It was very magical. We came back in love, to be honest, or I’ll say smitten.” The couple tied the knot in October 1995 at a ceremony in Martha’s Vineyard. Then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hilary Clinton attended their wedding.

After they married, the couple went on to work together in the TV series “Gulliver’s Travels” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the 2004 romantic comedy “It Must Be Love.” Danson told PEOPLE, “I want as long as possible in my life with Mary. I know it will have all of its hard parts, but I want to experience love in all those moments.”

In 2018, Steenburgen said she would “sign up for 100 more lifetimes” with Danson, adding, “There’s no hollow in my heart where I don’t love him, or where I doubt this love. There’s no secret place where I say we weren’t a thousand percent supposed to spend our life together.”