Who Is Dick Van Dyke's Wife? All About Arlene Silver

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Dick Van Dyke found love again with his wife Arlene Silver.

The Mary Poppins star, 97, first met Silver, 51, at the SAG Awards in 2006. Silver, a makeup artist, was working at the awards show where Van Dyke was appearing. They hit it off, and he hired her for other projects he was working on. It wasn't until many years later that their romance blossomed.

Though there's a 46-year age gap between the two, they have a good sense of humor about it, with Van Dyke joking to Oprah that Silver is his "child bride." They're happily married and have an active life together, appearing on red carpets and performing together. In May 2022, Van Dyke and Silver were spotted out and about in Malibu, California, where they live. As they went to the gym and lunch, he was wearing a shirt that read "Just a Spoonful of Sugar," in a nod to the famous Mary Poppins song.

"She is the best wife," Van Dyke told the Malibu Times. "She's made me the happiest man in the world. Our life is so good together."

Silver told Huffington Post, "We take very good care of each other. But, I'm very aware that I have a national treasure on my hands … He's the perfect human being but he's also the perfect partner."

So who is Dick Van Dyke's wife? Here's everything to know about Arlene Silver and her relationship with the actor.

She and Van Dyke met on the job

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Silver met her future husband at the SAG Awards in 2006, where she was working as a makeup artist. "There was something about her beautiful eyes," Van Dyke told PEOPLE.

Although she found him familiar, she didn't immediately place where she knew him from. "I knew him, I just didn't know how I knew him," Silver said. "I like that I knew him as a man before I knew him as a performer."

She and Van Dyke fell in love after loss

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Van Dyke's longtime love Michelle Triola died from lung cancer in 2009, and Silver was there for him during his grief. "Arlene would come by after work and bring me food," he told PEOPLE. "She was such a support, I fell in love." She moved into Van Dyke's Malibu home in 2011.

Van Dyke has also told PEOPLE that he's the kind of person who loves to be in love. "I have a few friends who have always enjoyed living alone," he said of his late-in-life romance. "But for some reason, that just isn't the life for me. You gotta have somebody to love."

She and Van Dyke wed in 2012

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Silver and Van Dyke got married on Feb. 29, 2012, on a leap day (though they celebrate their anniversary on Feb. 28 every year that's not a leap year). "It was on the spur of the moment, we just decided Leap Day would be the best time to do it," he told PEOPLE.

"It's a really nice relationship, most people like her a lot," Van Dyke's publicist Bob Palmer told ABC News. "Despite their obvious age difference, Dick has never been happier. She brings a lot of light into his life."

Van Dyke's family welcomed Silver

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Though Van Dyke was concerned that his family wouldn't accept his relationship with a woman 46 years younger than him, they embraced Silver warmly. "My grandkids call her Grandma," Van Dyke said. "My four kids just love her."

She's a singer and dancer

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One of the things that bonded the couple is their mutual love of singing and dancing, which has lasted throughout their marriage. They perform together in the Vantastix, a cappella group Van Dyke formed many years ago.

"Mostly we sing and dance together," Van Dyke told the Malibu Times.

"I've learned so many songs with Dick. Countless," Silver said in the same interview. "He loves to sing all the time, and since we can't always have a band here or the Vantastix, I always want to keep him singing."

By all accounts, it's working. "My wife is a good singer and dancer so there's a lot of singing and dancing going on around here," Van Dyke told PEOPLE in 2015. "I got up the other morning, she was in the kitchen doing the dishes and she had her tap shoes on, and she was tap dancing while she was doing the dishes!"

She directed a music video

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In addition to performing with Van Dyke, Silver also created a band, Arlene & the Vantastix. In February 2022, she directed a music video for the band's rendition of "Everybody Loves a Lover," the 1958 hit by Doris Day, and cast her husband as her costar.

The sweet video features Silver and Van Dyke dancing through an art installation in Los Angeles called "Supershow." In the clip, the pair make a clever reference to a famous moment from The Dick Van Dyke Show. In the show's opening credits, Van Dyke comically tumbles over an ottoman; at the end of the video, Van Dyke sidesteps one with a dance move.

Another cute detail from the video: everyone is wearing sweaters from the Dick Van Dyke Collection, a line of sweaters he released in the 1960s.

They love a red carpet

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Van Dyke and Silver often get dressed up for marquee events and appear on red carpets together. For the premiere of Mary Poppins Returns, which Van Dyke appeared in, Silver accompanied her husband wearing a maroon gown and a vampy Old Hollywood look. Silver was also by Van Dyke's side when he received a medallion at the 2021 Kennedy Center Honors, which celebrated his lifetime of contributions to American culture.

She inspired his Masked Singer performance

In February 2023, Van Dyke appeared on the season 9 premiere of The Masked Singer, where he sang a rendition of Frank Sinatra's' "When You're Smiling."

Following his performance, the entertainer told PEOPLE that Silver helped him pick his number for the show.

"They wanted me to do something current and I know nothing from rock," Van Dyke said. "So we picked out one which typifies me. She's the one that came up with it and I liked the song, too."