Jeff Bridges and Susan Geston's 40-Year Marriage Will Restore Your Faith in Love
They've been married for 40 years, but Jeff Bridges, 68, remembers meeting his wife Susan Geston, 64, like it was yesterday. He even carries a special photo of her in his wallet, which captures the very first moment they met.
Fargo, North Dakota native Susan was in Paradise Valley, Montana waiting tables to pay for college while Jeff was there to film scenes for the 1975 movie Rancho Deluxe. He saw her working and knew he had to ask her out. "I knew I was madly in love with my wife the minute I saw her," Jeff told Conan O'Brien on his late night show.
When Jeff, then 24, finally suggested the two go on a date, Susan, then 20, quickly said no—but luckily, the two just happened to run into each other a few nights later. They spent the night dancing and hit it off. After filming wrapped, she moved back to California with Jeff.
Despite his immediate infatuation, marriage didn't follow for many years. "It was love at first sight, but getting to the altar was so tough," he said. Jeff was afraid of the commitment marriage required, but when Susan gave him an ultimatum (she wanted to get married and start a family), he knew he didn't want to lose her.
"I said, 'Oh God, I can't let this woman go,'" Jeff told OWN. "I had this vision of an old guy thinking there was this girl from Montana, man, why didn't I marry her." They were married just five days after he proposed in 1977.
While it required a leap of faith, it all worked out. "What you don't know until you get married is that you think all the other doors close, which is true, but this doorway you open [with marriage] is a hallway lined with all these other brilliant doors—kids, deeper intimacy, adventures, and everything else," Jeff said. After four decades of marriage, the couple now has three daughters and one grandchild. They've also worked on 50 movies together, according to the Daily Beast.
"My marriage just gets better and better every year," Jeff said. But that doesn't mean it was always easy. The pair used to fight often, but eventually developed a simple solution for improving their communication. They chat often about what's bothering them—letting the other talk until they've finished with no interruptions, according to AARP.
Of course, despite a long career in Hollywood, Jeff doesn't want his marriage to pan out like most celebrity unions do. Cheating and divorce just isn't for him, he says. "If you change partners every time it gets tough or you get a little dissatisfied, then you don't get the richness that's available in a long-term relationship," he said. "My wife supports me and it makes me love her more."
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