According to The New York Times, unmarried folks will soon be the majority of U.S. adults.
However, Sigourney Weaver and Jim Simpson are not part of this statistic.
The timeless couple are coming to four decades of marriage.
They met at a bar and got married a few months into dating.
After all this time, how do they stay so in-love?
Three-time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver has been married to stage director Jim Simpson
since 1984.
Not only have they been happily married for many years, their meet-cute could be the basis
of a rom-com.
The “Alien” star met her future hubby during the Williamstown Theatre Festival in
Massachusetts in 1983.
Sigourney was there as an actor while Jim was busy working as a director and part-time
bartender.
In fact, it was the bar — not the stage — where he made quite the impression on
his future wife.
All it took was a modest gesture.
“I remember going there with Christopher Walken — we were not dating — and I took
my shoes off to dance on the dirt floor, and it was so dark,” the 73-year-old told Interview
magazine.
Continuing the story, she revealed, “This man who’s my husband now rescued my shoes
and put them up on a pipe somewhere, so that I had to go to him and say, ‘Please, sir,
where are my shoes?’”
It was love at first sight for Weaver, but the couple’s first date didn’t happen
immediately.
“He was so cute,” she recalled.
The “Avatar” actress said she remembers thinking, “Well, he’s going to be a bachelor
for many years.
I can see that.’
So I didn’t really think about him.
And I had a boyfriend at the time.”
After finding out more about how they started dating, one can assume Sigourney was playing
coy.
She must have had this handsome bartender on her mind because just a few months later,
she invited Jim to a party.
Again, the theatre director impressed her with a small gesture.
“He stayed late to help me put away the decorations, and then I asked him out to dinner,”
she shared.
After that, it took no time at all for the actress and her lover to realize they were
meant to be.
“Three months later, we decided to get married,” she said.
The beautiful couple tied the knot on October 1.
Six years after their wedding, the two welcomed their only child: a daughter named Charlotte
(https://forvo.com/search/charlotte/).
Their baby girl was conceived through IVF, and, as Sigourney told InStyle magazine, it
wasn’t an easy journey.
“It takes a toll on your body and on the marriage too, because you start looking at
clocks and all that stuff,” she confessed, but added, “I’m so glad we persevered.”
Weaver and Simpson have been happily married for 38 years now.
The “Ghostbusters” star told Instyle magazine that she and her hubby have a few simple principles
to thank for their successful union.
For one, the husband and wife are similar but different.
While they both work in entertainment, their jobs don’t often overlap.
They did this especially when Charlotte was young, so that there was always a parent with
her.
Simpson told the IndieWire website at the time, “We don’t usually work together,
so we can take turns with our daughter.”
Weaver's profession requires some extensive time and travel, which means it’s her husband
who’s usually holding down the fort.
Can we just pause for a moment to appreciate a couple smiling in defiance at traditional
gender roles?
Fortunately, Jim was never bothered that his wife had a higher-profile career.
As Sigourney tells it, he was just happy that one of them could earn a living.
“And in terms of what he's given me, it's priceless," she gushed in an interview with
The Guardian, adding, "If I didn't have such a supportive husband, I couldn't have done
it.”
With Simpson able to frequently work from home, his successful wife was able to maintain
a regular acting career.
Talk about teamwork!
Even though they have this fantastic teamwork, they’ve made it a point not to work together.
In fact, the only time they collaborated was on 2002’s “The Guys,” which Jim co-wrote
and directed and Sigourney starred in.
It was a success, but they both agreed that it was a good thing the shoot only lasted
ten days.
The director said, “We also like to complain about whom we’re working with when we get
home, and you can’t do that when you’re working together because you’re looking
at ’em.”
However, there’s a difference between working together and having a business together.
While being interviewed by her dear friend, Jamie Lee Curtis, for Interview magazine,
Sigourney casually mentioned that she and Jim started a theatre together called “the
Flea.”
She also said, “I must give Jim all the credit for the Flea.”
After she left Yale, Weaver got into doing plays off-off Broadway.
Sadly, it wasn’t because she really wanted to.
The actress has previously spoken about her horrible experience at the Yale
drama school.
Her teachers told Weaver that she lacked the talent needed for acting, which destroyed
her confidence in her acting abilities.
Thankfully, being in crazy off-off-Broadway plays reminded the star of who she is.
In fact, after her massive success with the first “Alien” movie, Sigourney went back
to theatre for a few years to work on her art.
By the way, she only met Jim after her rocket to fame with the space horror movie.
At the time when the actress was exploring theatre, her husband had been working on theatre
directing.
He would work with playwrights like Mac Wellman and Len Jenkin to create what his wife describes
as “incredible shows.”
However, come time for the shows; someone would get sick or have to leave because they
got another gig.
As told by Sigourney, that’s when Jim proposed, “‘Why don’t we find a theater’ — he’d
been looking for a few years — ‘and make a state-of-the-art theater’.”
The “Heartbreakers” actress describes the Flea as a greenhouse for all talent to
germinate in New York City.
The
couple co-founded the premiere venue in 1996.
In her 2015 interview with Curtis, Weaver explained that she and Simpson are creating
a new, retrofitted building with three theatres.
There will be one named after Sam Cohn and one named after A.R.
Gurney, who’s written about eight plays for the Flea.
There’s also a tiny, squatty little goblin space in the basement, which will be dedicated
to very experimental work.
It will be called the Siggy, named after the actress herself.
“I feel very proud of what Jim has done,” Sigourney gushed over her husband’s accomplishments
with the Flea.
That brings us to another important key to the couple’s marital bliss.
From Jim staying home to look after their daughter to Sigourney being a co-founder in
a theatre she hardly has time to visit, the lovebirds show that they support one another
and never compete.
As the “Working Girl” actress told Express, her husband deserves plenty of credit for
making their marriage work because he is a strong man to be married to someone famous.
She explained, “He handles the fuss with grace.
I get far more attention than him, but it’s clear for both of us that his work is as important
as mine.”
However, of all her advice: her top tip is the simplest yet the hardest.
“I’ve always believed that whatever is wrong with your current relationship, you’ll
re-experience it in the next one,” she mused.
”So why not stick with this great guy who you found and work things out with him?”
Sigourney added.
The thing is, her advice must work because, nearly four decades later, Weaver and Simpson
are still very loved up.
Our hearts melt like butter on toast while we relive this couple’s romance.
They’re just adorable all the time!
They ooze relationship goals from their first to most recent red-carpet appearance.
Sigourney has always been a fashionista.
Like wine, she has aged over time.
The actress still confidently rocks daring pieces at events; in our opinion, she never
misses.
We can’t forget to give credit to Sigourney’s dashing husband.
Some tabloids have dubbed him a silver fox.
A dapper suit always accompanies the director’s bright eyes and charming smile.
Together, they are magnificent.
Media and fans talk about the radiant looks of the 73-year-old actress.
Weaver's enduringly youthful glow is likely enhanced by all the time she spends canoeing
and hiking with her equally outdoorsy husband.
JustJared.com shared cute images of the loving couple in January 2021.
The two decided to take advantage of the hot weather in Malibu and go for a dip in the
ocean.
Sigourney and Jim were wearing matching wetsuits showing off some super cute PDA.
They were holding hands and smiling playfully and lovingly at each other.
If this isn't couple goals, we don’t know what is.
Jim and the beach aren’t the only sunshine in Sigourney’s life.
Even though the actress has always been a working mother, she admits she's super attached
to her daughter.
"I'm kind of a gooey...
I don't know why I don't drive my daughter absolutely crazy, but she couldn't be sweeter,"
she confessed in an interview with The Guardian.
The actress and her daughter are often seen together at red carpet-events.
Some tabloids even refer to Charlotte as Sigourney’s “mini-me.”
"We never went through that period of not getting along.
I kept expecting it," the sci-fi veteran once said.
Clearly, the secret to a happy life is to be surrounded by people we love, and to love
them dearly.
In the wise words of Sigourney Weaver, “If one is married for a long time, and one does
have a family . . . It is like an energy, a wonderful fire that never goes out underneath
you, to help you go out into the world and do your damnedest.”
While relationships may seem a never-ending challenge, couples like Sigourney Weaver and
Jim Simpson remind us why it’s worth the effort.
Yes, we’re more than capable of challenging life head-on and being solo adventurists.
But there’s beauty and a sense of peace in allowing people to share the journey with
you.