The Music City-meets-Tinseltown story of Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black started in 1990, when the actress went backstage to meet the country singer after his New Year’s Eve concert in Houston, Texas.
“I didn’t know who she was,” Black admits to People, “but when I saw her standing there with those beautiful blue eyes, I knew I wanted to see her again.”
After a top-secret courtship, the couple wed in Katy, Texas, in 1991. They welcomed daughter Lily Pearl in 2001.
Now, the couple has passed a quarter of a century as husband and wife, and they’ve even recorded an award-winning duet, “When I Said I Do,” that will be played at weddings for ages to come.
The secret to a long and happy marriage? “We continue to laugh,” Hartman Black tells Good Housekeeping. “We’ve gone through our struggles, like all couples, but we’ve continued to keep our sense of humor.”
Laughter helps keep a marriage strong, as does one other thing: Black received some helpful tips from the late Roy Rogers.
“We nurture our marriage. When [Roy] found out we were getting married, he said, ‘I’ll give you one little piece of advice: Don’t ever go to bed angry,'” Black says. “And he was right. What we’ve always done is deal with emotions and problems as they come along.”
This story was originally written by Deborah Evans-Price, and revised by Christina Vinson.