COUPLESWilliam Daniels Reveals Secret to His and Wife Bonnie Bartlett's 72-Year Marriage
On Boy Meets World, William Daniels offered endless words of wisdom to his students — and he had no problem doling out advice in real life when he was asked the "secret" to his and wife Bonnie Bartlett's 72-year marriage.
"The secret is a lack of imagination!" the actor joked in a new interview with a laugh.
Bonnie Bartlett recounted the ups and downs of their romance in her memoir.
Daniels, 96, also offered up a more serious response on how to maintain a successful relationship.
"There has to be communication between the two of you. If you stop talking to each other, you’re probably angry and you probably shouldn’t be married," he noted. "Communication is a way of knowing what each one is going through."
The pair share two adult sons, Robert and Michael.
Aside from appearing in the hit '90s sitcom together, Bartlett, 94, also had a role in St. Elsewhere, but Daniel insisted it was a piece of cake to be professional with his partner.
"I enjoy working with Bonnie because she is such a good actor," he spilled. "We get along pretty well. We don’t criticize each other, and we don’t have any jealousy."
The pair revealed they had an open marriage when they first tied the knot in 1951.
The TV star even admitted that reading his wife's memoir didn't cause any issues to arise.
"I was interested in seeing her point of view, which didn’t always resemble my point of view," he explained. "From that point, I learned about my wife and what she actually thought and what she actually did, so it was important for me to read that. I thought it was very nice, very good, very accurate."
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The two first met while attending Northwestern University, but Bartlett confessed she initially turned him down because she felt "too tall" for him!
"Now, it turns out I much later found out she'd been following me around campus, unbeknownst to me, because she heard I'd been on Broadway. So this business about 'you're too short' was a lot of bull," Daniels quipped.
"Well, I was good at pushing men away," the actress acknowledged. "But also, I loved his leather jacket. Oh, I loved his leather jacket. It was really exciting."
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Closer spoke to Daniels.
