{"id":3390,"date":"2023-04-12T20:43:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T20:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=3390"},"modified":"2026-01-08T15:06:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:06:37","slug":"rob-lowe-talks-about-what-has-made-his-nearly-32-year-marriage-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2023\/04\/rob-lowe-talks-about-what-has-made-his-nearly-32-year-marriage-work.html","title":{"rendered":"Rob Lowe Talks About What Has Made His Nearly 35-Year Marriage Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Featureflash Photo Agency \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actor Rob Lowe, 59, joined Bruce Bozzi on the \u201c<\/span>Table for Two<\/span><\/a>\u201d podcast, where he gushed about his wife, Sheryl Berkoff, 61, and their nearly 35-year-long marriage. The star started by admitting that marriage is difficult. \u201cIt is not just Hollywood, it\u2019s everywhere. Marriage is hard\u2026 And will be hard,\u201d he admitted. Despite admitting difficulties in marriage, Lowe also shared that there are some key things that have made his marriage to Berkoff work. \u201cIt\u2019s all about who you choose,\u201d he said. \u201cSheryl was and is my best friend. So, if you marry for anything other than the fact that it\u2019s your best friend, you\u2019re at a disadvantage from the jump. \u2018Cause that will sustain when the other stuff ebbs and flows.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Science agrees with Lowe. A paper published in 2015 by the\u00a0<\/span>National Bureau of Economic Research<\/span><\/a>\u00a0found that marrying a \u201cbest friend\u201d was a key helper in long-term happiness. The study found that \u201cwell-being effects of marriage are about twice as large for those whose spouse is also their best friend.\u201d Lowe and Berkhoff, who works as a makeup artist,\u00a0<\/span>initially met<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in 1983 on a blind date. While they didn\u2019t start a relationship, they were reunited in 1990 while working on the set of Lowe\u2019s film\u00a0<\/span>Bad Influence<\/span><\/em>. In an interview with\u00a0<\/span>Entertainment Tonight<\/span><\/em>, Lowe credited Berkhoff for inspiring him to get sober. \u201cShe may have saved my life, really. I mean, she met me when I was at the end of my \u201880s run of wild boy craziness, and she was worth changing my life for,\u201d he said. The two tied the knot in the summer of 1991 and have two sons, Matthew, 29, and John Owen, 28.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lowe said that forgiveness was another key to making their marriage work. He said that part of marriage is \u201creally cognizant of what hill you\u2019re willing to die on.\u201d \u201cI think the minute things go south for whatever reason it could be\u2026 many, many, many reasons, I think people can go, \u2018Oh, I knew it. This, this is bad. This is a mistake. That marriages don\u2019t work.\u2019 Everybody has those dark periods,\u201d he added. But he said, \u201cYou just can\u2019t bail.\u201d \u201c\u2019Cause eventually, it\u2019ll turn around if you\u2019re with the right person,\u201d he said. The <\/span>Gottman Institute<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has found that forgiveness is crucial to a marriage as it \u201cis one way of letting go so that you can heal and move on with your life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Lowe admitted that physical \u201cheat\u201d helps a lot too. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the heat\u2026 and that\u2019s a chemical thing. That\u2019s like I still have it with Sheryl.\u2026 You got to keep the heat.\u201d He admitted that attraction isn\u2019t always guaranteed, either. \u201cThere are days, there are times when you\u2019re just like \u2018Uhhh,\u2019 and then all of a sudden, you\u2019re just wild for somebody. It\u2019s one of the great human mysteries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actor Rob Lowe, 59, joined Bruce Bozzi on the \u201cTable for Two\u201d podcast, where he gushed about his wife, Sheryl Berkoff, 61, and their nearly 35-year-long marriage. The star started by admitting that marriage is difficult. \u201cIt is not just Hollywood, it\u2019s everywhere. Marriage is hard\u2026 And will be hard,\u201d he admitted. Despite admitting difficulties…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":3420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRob Lowe Talks About What Has Made His Nearly 35-Year Marriage Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rob Lowe reveals his secret to his 32-year-long marriage to wife, Sheryl Berkoff.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2023\/04\/rob-lowe-talks-about-what-has-made-his-nearly-32-year-marriage-work.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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