Inside the love story of Marlo Thomas & Phil Donahue

The marriage book was literally written by Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas. The long-married pair discusses their marriage in their book, What Makes a Marriage Las: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets.

Marlo most intriguingly discloses that she grew up wanting nothing to do with marriage, even though she has been married to Phil for nearly 40 years.

The celebrity shared in the book her previously pessimistic view of the establishment, saying that marriage is like a vacuum cleaner—you stick it to your ear and it sucks out all your ambition and vitality.

Thomas, who frequently expresses her sentiments, compares marriage to having to live with a jailer. Well, until she got to know Donahue.

After Phil Donahue’s first marriage ended, he and Marlo Thomas met, and since then, they have forged an enduring friendship.

The Phil Donahue Show, which was eventually renamed as simply “Donahue,” was the vehicle through which Phil Donahue first gained popular recognition. The program, which featured audience participation, was the first of its kind and ran for 29 years. And Marlo Thomas, a guest on his show, completely altered the course of his life.

According to the book, the pair first met in Chicago in 1977, and Phil brought four youngsters with him. His daughter, his fifth kid, lived somewhere else with her mother and his ex-wife.

Before Marlo and Phil got married in 1980 in a small ceremony attended by 35 guests, they dated for three years.

Naturally, Marlo’s family and friends were taken aback by her sudden change of heart. A amusing story about friends at Marlo’s bridal shower hanging quotations from the soon-to-be bride that reflected her prior opinions on marriage is told in the couple’s book.

The marriage book was literally written by Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas. The long-married pair discusses their marriage in their book, What Makes a Marriage Las: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets.

Marlo most intriguingly discloses that she grew up wanting nothing to do with marriage, even though she has been married to Phil for nearly 40 years.

The celebrity shared in the book her previously pessimistic view of the establishment, saying that marriage is like a vacuum cleaner—you stick it to your ear and it sucks out all your ambition and vitality.

Ben Affleck surprises fans by showing up next to J-Lo recently. Thomas compares marriage to having a jailer one must appease, saying at different points that “she is sucking out his youth” and making her feelings very apparent. Well, until she got to know Donahue.

After Phil Donahue’s first marriage ended, he and Marlo Thomas met, and since then, they have forged an enduring friendship.

The Phil Donahue Show, which was eventually renamed as simply “Donahue,” was the vehicle through which Phil Donahue first gained popular recognition. The program, which featured audience participation, was the first of its kind and ran for 29 years. And Marlo Thomas, a guest on his show, completely altered the course of his life.

According to the book, the pair first met in Chicago in 1977, and Phil brought four youngsters with him. His daughter, his fifth kid, lived somewhere else with her mother and his ex-wife.

Before Marlo and Phil got married in 1980 in a small ceremony attended by 35 guests, they dated for three years.

Naturally, Marlo’s family and friends were taken aback by her sudden change of heart. A amusing story about friends at Marlo’s bridal shower hanging quotations from the soon-to-be bride that reflected her prior opinions on marriage is told in the couple’s book.

The novel claims that during the couple’s wedding, Donahue was asked, “How did you get her to do this?” by Marlo’s mother, who was more shocked than everyone else.

Reportedly, the star and social activist’s decision to settle down caused even strangers to express disbelief, among other feelings. While Phil was in the restroom, a woman on the plane that carried the couple to Greece for their honeymoon expressed dismay to Marlo, making it obvious that she was upset that she had given up her prior independent streak.

In the book, Thomas is forthright in stating that during this exchange, a kernel of doubt began to grow. Was she a hypocrite for getting married since she had dedicated so much of her life to criticizing marriage? Had she disappointed those who looked up to her as the epitome of self-reliance?

Even though Donahue and Thomas discuss the usual ups and downs of their long marriage in the book, they manage to make their marriage work to this day. They describe these problems as teaching moments that deepened their relationship.

The couple had been apart from the beginning of their marriage, with Phil traveling to Chicago to tape his show and Marlo traveling to pursue her acting career.

Thomas was able to see that different people define marriage differently when his aunt pointed out that the couple’s marriage was not a marriage because they were not truly living together.

Donahue and Thomas managed to keep their marriage intact despite their distance. Crucially, Marlo also gained her husband along with her children.

Thomas discussed her experience helping to raise Phil’s children in a 2012 interview with AARP. She said that she went into the experience knowing that they already had a traditional mother and it would not be her role.

Instead, Marlo says that she tried to emulate her own mother’s parenting style by becoming more of a friend to Phil’s kids. She goes on to claim that her bond with them is even closer now than it was when they first got married.

Donahue highlights throughout the book that Thomas did, in fact, take the time to get to know his sons through conversation and made an effort to comprehend them.

Aside from their close bond with his kids, Phil and Marlo attribute their lengthy marriage to their mutual trust in one another. “You develop trust when you realize that this person always has your back,” says Marlo.

They still have more memories to create after having been married for more than 40 years.

Phil continues by saying that for a marriage to endure, both partners must want it to. He is echoed by Marlo, who says that, on reflection, she would never have it any other way than as a married woman. She goes on to say that Donohue has helped her “in every manner possible.”

Marriage is a really lovely relationship, and it gets even better when two individuals genuinely commit to each other.

We can all learn a lot from and be inspired by this duo. We ought to all aspire to be in a relationship as successful as theirs!