Jeff Bridges is on the cover of the May issue of Costco magazine, and it has probably been out for a while but I haven’t seen these quotes online yet. Jeff, 60, says some really thoughtful things about his marriage of 33 years, to former waitress Susan Geston, with whom he has three daughters: Isabelle, 29, Jessica, 27, and Hayley, 25.
Jeff and Susan met in 1974 when she was working at a ranch in Montana where he was filming at the time. In a piece he wrote for Readers Digest in 2006, he explained how he met Sue and asked her to marry him. Bridges said that within a week of meeting his future wife he knew he was in love and explained that she gave him “a feeling of being at home.” Three years later they were living together, but Bridges hadn’t yet proposed as he had a fear of marriage. Sue wasn’t going to stick around without a proposal and planned to leave him to go back to Montana for a job offer. Jeff realized he would regret it for the rest of his life if he let her get away. He explained “I thought, If I let this girl go, I will always know she was the one. So I got down on my knees and asked Sue to marry me.”
In an exclusive interview with Costco, Jeff describes how his marriage works after 33 years, and I found his comments so heart warming.
“We’re in love… And then we practice love. We’ve been married 33 years. Life can be a challenge. You come up against things where some people say ‘I’ve had it; that’s too tough.’ But if you stay with those feelings and try to understand the other person’s position and really be there for the other person, your love gets to expand. I guess it’s almost like working out. You work out and it becomes easier and you start to enjoy it.”
[From The Costco Connection, print edition, May 2010]
That’s a really apt way to describe it. Marriage takes work just like everything else that’s worthwhile, but it doesn’t have to be drudgery and if you avoid it the problems will start to pile up. If only we had more leading men in Hollywood like Jeff Bridges. It seems like the conniving cheaters are getting all the press lately, but I hope they’re the exception. Popeater recently did a piece on faithful Hollywood men and Bridges was right up there with other loyal husbands like Matt Damon, Kevin Bacon and Tom Hanks.
Nothing sexier than a faithful man!
Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Tom Hanks, but didn’t he get together with Rita Wilson while still married to someone else? And yes, I know he’s been faithful to Rita for 22 years, but I find it interesting that his previous situation is just ignored.
Crash2G02 That’s the truth. A man who has remained faithful and in love in Hollywood? How sexy is that!
Yes Tom hanks cheated on his first wife with Rita , in fact I believe she was also in a relationship at the time
Just saw Crazy Heart the other night, and Bridges was so incredible. To learn that not only is he a brilliant actor, but also a wonderful husband, is really cool.
Well, you’re not always going to hit paydirt the first time. JB was lucky.
To think they have been married longer than I have been alive, but aside from that, is Tom Hanks’ marriage less perfect because he had cheated in the past? So he is not as good as Jeff Bridges? What if Jeff Bridges has also cheated but his wife forgave him and it wasn’t just publicised? My point is we need to stop moralizing romantic decisions, “bad” people can have great marriages and “good” people cheat. Don’t get me wrong fidelity is obviously important in any commited relationship however, you can’t tarr every man who strayed with the same brush and sometimes it isn’t a simple issue of good guy/bad guy.
Awesome – You gotta respect that! And, he’s right…
@ crash2GO2 – AMEN! I totally agree with you!
I guess he is right. eventually it becomes easier to deal with all the different feelings and emotions. Taking your spouse into consideration and understanding that life is different for all of us 🙂
His wife is a total babe. As for the list of “faithful” husbands – well, I wouldn’t take it that seriously. Maybe they just haven’t been caught yet.
Thank you for this story.
@rraven : I wasn’t judging his marriage. I was simply stating that putting him on a list of faithful husbands(the list referenced in the post)seemed a little hypocritical to me. I don’t care who sleeps with whom. It was more a dig at whatever journalist put the list together.
Jeff Bridges just gets more amazing as time goes on. Pierce Brosnan could go on that list of faithful husbands. Another great guy.
all love for “the dude.”
The DUDE!!! Now I have to go watch the Big Lebowski again.
I did hear some rumors that Tom Hanks did cheat on Rita, but who knows? A bit of gossip is hardly like walking in on him and some chick.
It would be so lovely to think there is this amazing list of Hollywood men who don’t cheat, but as some have pointed out, maybe they just haven’t been caught yet. Hard to say.
It always kills me when you refer to Matt Damon as this “faithful” guy. He was cheating on his longterm girlfriend when he knocked up a titty-bar dancer he met in a skanky nightclub. Can’t see the “faithfulness” in that.
Stay the f*ck away from my Special Lady Friend!
A Hollywood couple who’s still standing after three decades together is quite refreshing. I applaud Jeff Bridges for not “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” as he approached middle age. He and his wife are the “absolute bomb” and may they continue to enjoy many more happy years together. Perhaps it’s time for him to write his biography.
Oh please! Faithfull husbands my a**. They have all cheated at one point or the other, they just haven’t been caught. They are men, they cheat, get with the programme.