If there’s one thing that we can never get enough of, it’s an epic love story and Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley have just that.
After over forty years together, the couple’s marriage has been unwavering and people can’t help but wonder what the secret is to their long-lasting union.
From falling in love in high school and going through the whirlwind of Jon’s booming career as a rockstar, we’re going to tell you everything we know about how their love stood the test of time.
Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley met as high school students back in the late 1970s.
The pair went to the same school in New Jersey, and when Jon first laid eyes on Dorothea, he knew that she was special.
The high school sweethearts were immediately smitten and inseparable.
They dated throughout the rest of their school years but didn’t rush to get married after they both graduated in 1980.
Jon was determined to pursue his career as a musician, and in 1983, he formed his own rock band, Bon Jovi.
The band quickly rose to success, and Jon’s life was suddenly thrown into the spotlight.
On the other hand, didn’t aspire for a life in the spotlight, and for a brief moment, the couple was torn in different directions.
Jon and Dorothea briefly broke up in 1985 and during that time, Jon dated actress Diane Lane for five months.
After his breakup with Diane, Jon, and Dorothea were drawn back to one another and managed to rekindle their love.
After the couple reconciled, they knew that what they had was forever, and they never wanted to be with anyone else.
While Jon’s career peaked and he enjoyed the unbelievable success of his band, he felt like there was no point in planning a big wedding when there were so many time-consuming demands that came along with his fame.
He and his band were constantly touring and performing and it felt like there was so little time to do what they wanted for themselves.
Instead, he thought of a brilliant idea … He and Dorothea were going to get hitched in Vegas!
After nine years together, the high school sweethearts eloped in Vegas in April 1989.
Four years later, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Stephanie. In 1995 they had a son, Jesse.
Considering their life in the spotlight, the couple decided it would be better to keep their private life away from prying eyes.
Jon was already giving so much of himself and his time to the public, they wanted to be able to keep the intimacy of their family life to themselves.
The musician’s life got so intense that he almost missed the birth of his third child in 2002.
While Jovi played a show in New Orleans, some fans had managed to get hold of the number at his hotel room and were constantly trying to call him.
Jon decided to turn off the phone, but when Dorothea called in the middle of the night to tell him her water broke, she couldn't reach him.
Luckily, Bon Jovi's tour manager woke him to break the news, and he took a private plane back to New Jersey, making it back just in time for the birth of his son, Jake.
In 2004, the couple welcomed their fourth and last child, a son they called Romeo.
During an interview with People magazine, Jon opened up about how becoming a father had impacted his life.
In 2006, Bon Jovi and Dorothea founded the JBJ Soul Foundation, an organization that works "to break the cycle of hunger, poverty, and homelessness."
The nonprofit kicked things off by renovating 15 houses in Philadelphia but eventually began working across the U.S. building and renovating homes in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
Since its founding, the Soul Foundation has built over 500 affordable housing units and opened three volunteer-run Soul Kitchen restaurants.
Dorothea came up with the idea for the "pay-if-you-can" restaurants, which allow those who can afford a meal to pay for those who can't.
Dorothea was determined to help people in whatever way that she could, and wanted to find a way to give back to the world.
She was incredibly aware of how privileged their life had become following her husband’s success and wanted to use some of the fortunes that they had made to do some good.
Dorothea didn’t think it was fair to see people suffer while her family was able to get whatever it was that they needed and more.
It’s rare for rock stars in Hollywood to have such a long-lasting union, in fact, most of them have a notorious reputation for short and fleeing marriages that quickly lead to messy divorces.
However, Jon and Dorothea were clearly a very rare gem amongst all the rest.
2010 marked the couple’s twenty-first wedding anniversary. During an interview with Men’s Health, Bon Jovi opened up about why his marriage to Dorothea was different.
It should come as no surprise that he credited his wife for all the compassion and support she’d shown him throughout all their years together.
No matter how demanding his career became, she never held it against him, and always encouraged him to pursue his music because she knew it was important to him.
Two years later, the couple was faced with an unimaginable tragedy after their eldest daughter Stephanie, who was just nineteen years old at the time, suffered a drug overdose.
Stephanie called her parents from the hospital and told her father that she had overdosed on heroin.
Thankfully, she made a full recovery and the drug charges against her were eventually dropped.
Unfortunately, the experience left both Jon and his wife extremely rattled after being so close to losing their daughter.
The musician went on to describe the incident as “a terrible speed bump” that their family was able to get over.
Despite the incredible fame that he had built over the last few decades, Jon shared that his children are the ones who keep him humble when he’s not touring the world.
Bon Jovi and Dorothea are often asked about the secret to being in a long-term relationship. In 2016, Dorothea shared in an interview,
Bon Jovi added, "She's the glue.” He described himself as “the crazy visionary with all kinds of things flying, and the seams are all splitting.”
While his wife is the one, following him with “the glue and the thread and needle, keeping it all together."
In 2018, after 35 years as a group, the band Bon Jovi was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2018. The singer's entire family showed up to support him.
Later that same year, the couple celebrated their son Jesse’s wine launch.
Jon and his son founded Hampton Water, a brand of rosé sourced from a vineyard in the south of France.
Just shy of his 30th wedding anniversary, Bon Jovi shared that his fans' were distraught after he and Dorothea got married.
In 2020, after 40 years together, Bon Jovi shared the secret to his marriage with Dorothea. He explained that it all came down to “mutual respect.”
On the couple's 32nd wedding anniversary, Bon Jovi shared a touching tribute to Dorothea. Alongside a black-and-white photo from their Las Vegas wedding, he wrote,
"If I got one thing right back in high school it was falling in love with this girl."
There’s no doubt that Jon and Dorothea’s marriage has stood the test of time, and all the pressures of life in the spotlight.
No matter how many times he toured the world, the one person he always wanted to come back to was Dorothea because she has always been his home.
They fell in love in high school and have been inseparable for over forty years.
If that’s not an epic love story, we don’t know what is!