Samuel L. Jackson has been married to LaTanya Richardson Jackson for over 40 years

When Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson say they’re in it for the long haul, they mean it.

The pair have been married since 1980 and share one daughter, Zoe, who is an Emmy-winning reality TV producer. As LaTanya told PEOPLE, it’s not just loving that kept them going but a pact they made to stay together.

“In the beginning, we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, since everybody likes to pretend that that’s not the dynamic of the African American family. That it’s just 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren out here being raised by women, which we know is false,” she said. “In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We’ll figure it out.’ ”

In August 2023, Samuel and LaTanya celebrated 43 years of marriage.

“It’s 53 really. She test drove me for 10!! I passed,” the Coach Carter actor wrote on Instagram. “I think we can make 43 more!!! Love everlasting!!!!!!”

The couple works well together at home and at work. The Jacksons both took part in the 2022 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, with LaTanya directing and Samuel starring alongside John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Danielle Brooks and Michael Potts. Washington’s father, famed actor Denzel Washington, was one of the producers.

LaTanya was the first woman to direct an August Wilson play on Broadway. She and Samuel appeared on The View to discuss her directorial debut.

“It’s not always what you decide. This was a gift from Denzel Washington. [He] brought it to me. That’s how I got it,” LaTanya shared.

A well-respected actress in her own right, keep reading to find out more about Samuel L. Jackson’s wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson.

She is a Tony-nominated actress

David M. Russell/CBS via Getty

Samuel isn’t the only star in the Jackson household, as LaTanya has dozens of theater, film and TV credits to her name. In 2014, she received a Tony nomination for best actress in a play for her role as Lorraine Hansberry in A Raisin in the Sun. She has been in other Broadway plays, including the 2009 revival of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird adaptation (2018-2019).

Her film roles include Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and The Fighting Temptations (2003). She’s also appeared on TV shows like 100 Centre Street, Blue Bloods, Luke Cage and Grey’s Anatomy.

The couple have also starred in three films together, Losing Isaiah (1995), Freedomland (2006) and Mother and Child (2009), and were producing partners on the award-winning documentary Enslaved (2020) and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (2021), in which Samuel starred in the title role.

“I’m amazed at how busy we are in our seventh decade,” LaTanya told PEOPLE in 2022. “I’m grateful because I think of all the things that could be.”

She is from AtlantaFrazer Harrison/Getty

Born and raised in Atlanta, LaTanya started acting around age 15. She attended Spelman College, the oldest private HBCU liberal arts college for women. She started acting in the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s theater and continued until graduation.

“I got to work with such luminous actresses as Diana Sands in Macbeth,” LaTanya told Variety in 2017. “Atlanta was a welcoming presence for a lot of artists; they called it ‘the Mecca of the South.’ ”

LaTanya and Samuel, who attended Morehouse College, met as undergrads in Atlanta. They began dating in 1970 and performed alongside each other as members of the Morehouse Spelman Players. Samuel told PEOPLE that LaTanya was very much a “city girl, an Atlanta girl” and “part of the whole Black revolutionary thing that was happening at Spelman.”

In 2021, the Jacksons donated $5 million to Spelman, which was the school’s largest alumni donation in history, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The liberal arts center’s theater, lobby, dressing rooms and supporting areas will be renamed the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center in their honor.

They had a nontraditional proposalBarry King/Getty

During a joint appearance on the Graham Norton Show in 2020, Samuel admitted that he couldn’t remember how or if he proposed. LaTanya, sitting next to him, set the record straight. She said that at the time, her grandfather was “very ill” and “very concerned” that she and Samuel weren’t married, so they had to wed right away so her grandfather could walk her down the aisle.

“So now you have to ask him if you may marry me, and then you have to ask me will I marry you, and you did,” she explained, to which Samuel responded, “I did?” LaTanya said it was “semantical,” while Samuel insisted that it was “romantic.”

During a May 2023 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Jackson spoke about their differing engagement memories again. “My story was, I came home one day and (LaTanya) already had these invitations printed up, and she gave me a stack and said ‘Be here,’ ” he said.

He then recounted LaTanya’s version of their engagement, adding, “I was on drugs, and I probably didn’t know what the hell was going on at the time. So, she’s probably right!”

She is a philanthropist and a social justice advocateVinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Along with her husband, LaTanya co-founded the nonprofit Samuel L. and LaTanya R. Jackson Foundation in 1999, which has donated money to educational, arts and health organizations. The Jacksons were also donors to the National African American Museum of History and Culture.

LaTanya told the Washington Post that she had felt moved to action when she took a tour of the museum’s future location in Washington, D.C. “It was the most emotional moment for me,” she told the outlet in 2016. “I knew that it was an idea whose time had finally come. So I ran home and told Sam we have to be a part of this, and you have to donate so we can get this done.”

The Jacksons also speak out on social media about issues important to them, including finding justice for Breonna Taylor and voting rights, especially in LaTanya’s home state of Georgia.

She loves boating trips

Earvin “Magic” Johnson/Instagram

LaTanya’s Instagram is filled with yacht photos, both solo and with friends and family. Every July, the couple pauses work for the month to spend time with family, which often includes boat days with their daughter Zoe and her friends. As the couple explained to PEOPLE, Samuel has only one rule for their excursions: “Don’t wake anybody up. You sleep when you sleep. Then we come together and eat.”

In July 2023, LaTanya and Samuel chartered a superyacht with their friends Magic Johnson and Judge Greg Mathis, and their respective wives. The group traveled to Greece, Italy and France. While in Capri, they met up with Michael Jordan and his wife, Yvette Prieto, for dinner at the world-famous Da Paolino Ristorante.

They support each other in tough times

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In their decades together, the Jacksons have been through a lot, with one of their biggest struggles coming after Samuel became addicted to drugs and alcohol. Early in their marriage, LaTanya was the one to help her husband get into rehab. Samuel has now been in recovery for over 30 years. “She gave me the chance to be the man I was supposed to be,” he told PEOPLE.

Samuel has publicly shown his love for LaTanya many times, including a sweet Instagram message in August 2020 on the couple’s 40th wedding anniversary.

“50 years ago we started dancing, it was all fun & games. 40 years ago today, s— got real! The slow drag of our lives pressed together, I led sometimes, sometimes she did,” he wrote alongside a photo of the pair slow dancing. “We finally found that rhythm where there was no leader, we moved as one. We’re still glued together, hip to hip, holding each other up, not covering as much of the floor, but owning & loving the space that’s ours. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY @ltjackson_ Love You for keeping me on my toes & on the beat for 18,250 days. You make my soul sing. Don’t change the tune, we’re not done dancing.”

She is good friends with Julianne Moore and Magic JohnsonDavid Livingston/Getty

LaTanya and Samuel met Julianne Moore when they all starred in Freedomland. “We call her J. Mo,” LaTanya told the New York Times in 2014.

Other close friends — who often make appearances on LaTanya’s Instagram, especially in the form of 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day shout-outs — include famous couples like Magic Johnson and Cookie Johnson, Denzel and Pauletta Washington and Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee.

They attend the Tony Awards together every year

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions

The Jacksons enjoyed a date night at the 2022 Tony Awards, walking the red carpet together and presenting the award for best revival of a play, which went to Take Me Out. Samuel took a moment to honor his wife on stage.

“My first job on Broadway was as an understudy 32 years ago in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. So, I am thrilled to be coming back in September in a revival of The Piano Lesson — not as an understudy — this time directed by my wife LaTanya,” he said.

At the 2023 Tony Awards, Samuel walked the red carpet in a navy blue Giorgio Armani suit, while LaTanya dazzled in a black ensemble accented by lime-green feather cuffs. Later that evening, the couple presented the award for best play to Leopoldstadt.

She joined Samuel at the Pulp Fiction 30th anniversary event

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

In April 2024, Samuel and LaTanya celebrated 30 years of Pulp Fiction at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles. The couple joined Uma Thurman and John Travolta at the special cast reunion.