Ted DansonandMary Steenburgenhave learned a thing or two when it comes to spending quality time together.
The couple, who have self-quarantined amid the pandemic at their home in L.A., “have been alone except for today for the last nine months,” says the actress during the pair’s socially distanced photo shoot in January for one of this week’s PEOPLE cover stories. “And we’ve decided to stay together.”
Jokes Danson: “Every morning we get to choose. It’s a rule.”
Denise Crew
Danson, 73, who currently stars inMr. Mayor, and Steenburgen, 67, who returns toZoey’s Extraordinary Playlist(both on NBC), first met when he auditioned to play her husband in the 1983 filmCross Creek— and didn’t get the part. “Which is a miracle, because man, I was a hot mess back then,” the actor admits. Allows Steenburgen: “I was married. He was married. That was not our moment.”
Years later, when they were both cast in 1993’sPontiac Moon, “we both had sworn off relationships,” Steenburgen says.
Celebrating Steenburgen’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2009: top row, from left, Kate’s then-husband Jesse Bochco, Katrina Danson, Charlie McDowell and Kate Danson; bottom row, Lilly McDowell Walton, Steenburgen and Danson.Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
The actor had just gotten out of his very public relationship with actress Whoopi Goldberg and finalized his divorce from his second wife, Casey Coates, with whom he shares their grown daughters Kate and Katrina; Steenburgen was divorced from actor Malcolm McDowell and raising their now-grown kids Charlie and Lilly.
“We both said the same phrase to ourselves, which was: ‘Obviously we cannot be in a relationship,'” Danson recalls. “I could ruin anything. I’m not relationship material.”
Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.Denise Crew
While Steenburgen admits she initially thought “that dude seems kind of complicated,” both felt an undeniable attraction. “I wasn’t ready for anything like a relationship,” she adds. “We just kept working together and becoming better and better friends.”
A canoe trip and picnic Danson planned in Mendocino, California, sealed the deal. “It was very magical,” he adds. “We came back in love, to be honest, or I’ll say smitten.”
Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen in ‘Pontiac Moon’.Everett
For more of Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen’s exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, orsubscribe here.
“I want as long as possible in my life with Mary,” says Danson. “I know it will have all of its hard parts but I want to experience love in all those moments.”
Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson.Denise Crew
Which is just fine with the actress. “Not to sound corny, but I would sign up for a 100 more lifetimes,” Steenburgen says.
“There’s no hollow in my heart where I don’t love him, or where I doubt this love,” she adds. “There’s no secret place where I say we weren’t a thousand percent supposed to spend our life together.”
source: people.com
