How Ted Danson Found Love With Mary Steenburgen After Leaving Whoopi Goldberg

From Country Living

• Actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen met shortly after Ted was ending his second divorce, and his relationship with Whoopi Goldberg.

• The couple wed in 1995, just two years after meeting on the set of Pontiac Moon and have now been married for 25 years.

• Ted is now starring on Mr. Mayor, and Mary stars in Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, both on NBC.

Long before actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen ever met, Mary was a fan of Ted's from afar.

"I always thought Ted was brilliant," she once told Fox News. "When I was going through sad times, I'd watch Cheers at the end of the day to make me feel better." There's no word from Ted on what he thought of Mary's work in Hollywood before they became acquainted, but we know that he's now equally as obsessed.

"I'm madly in love with Mary," Ted told Us Weekly. "She's a remarkable human being so I'm just incredibly blessed."

The couple met back in 1993 on the set of the film Pontiac Moon during a difficult time for Ted, who had just said farewell to Cheers after 11 seasons. He had also recently gone through a costly divorce from his second wife, producer Casey Coates who he shares daughters Kate and Alexis with, and was ending his relationship with Whoopi Goldberg after 18 months of dating.

"I was a mess-and-a-half," the actor recently told AARP The Magazine. "I thought, I'm incapable of being in a relationship. But I was working on myself. Ironic how life works in those moments. Once you throw your arms up and surrender, a lot of times things come your way." And that's when "the love of his life" came along.

As it turns out, Mary, a single mom at the time, had issues of her own that she was working through, and the two were able to offer each other support. The Last Man on Earth actress had a difficult childhood. Her father was often in poor health and experienced several heart attacks.

"I spent my childhood waiting for my dad to die," she said. That traumatic childhood experience continued to overshadow her life—until she met Ted.

Since Mary and Ted wed in 1995, just two years after meeting, the two have gone on to star in many more shows and movies, and yet they've still found a way to make their Hollywood marriage thrive. When asked to spill the secret to their happiness, Ted has only one explanation. "I'm married to Mary Steenburgen," he told Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb in September 2017.

Indeed, after 25 years together, Ted and Mary are still crazy about each other. "Creative passion" is how Ted describes their relationship. "I like the way Mary laughs and smiles," he said. "I like her willingness to say yes to leap off tall buildings of life. I love her sense of fairness and right and wrong. And I don't think you're supposed to say this when you're almost 70, but she's very sexy."

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Their bond is so strong, it's even inspired the people around them. "It's almost intimidating spending time with Ted and Mary because of how solid and loving and connected they are," Kristen Bell, Ted's costar in The Good Place, said. "Honestly, it's beautiful how they obsess over each other."

"It's like heaven on earth," Ted told Us Weekly about his relationship. "If I were to die, I can say, I know what it's like to be loved and to love."

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