As they celebrate their 73rd wedding anniversary, the couple tells PEOPLE exclusively about how they made it through a brief period of open marriage
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Seventy-three years of marriage isn’t a milestone William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett Daniels ever thought they’d reach, especially after they had a brief open marriage early on in their relationship.
Bonnie previously spoke about having an open marriage with the Boy Meets World actor in her 2023 memoir, Middle of the Rainbow. Now, reflecting on that period of her life in a joint interview with William, 97, for PEOPLE, she shares how the longtime couple eventually worked through it.
“That was a time in New York when everything was open. Everything was open. We never discussed it. It just happened,” Bonnie, 95, says. “We accepted it for a while that that can happen.”
“It’s not good for any marriage to be separated a lot, and there were times that we were separated a lot, a long time,” the St. Elsewhere star continues. “We didn’t think we’d make it, but we did.”
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Bonnie notes that the pair have been “fortunate” thus far, especially since “anything that ever happened was minimal” or “unimportant.”
As for the best marriage advice she could give others, Bonnie places “being respectful” at the top of her list. William also agrees that “mutual respect” is crucial, as Bonnie adds that “listening to the other person and caring about the other person’s happiness” is a must for a long-lasting marriage.
“Caring about your happiness, yes. You’ve got to be happy, too, but caring about the other person’s happiness. Being patient if there’s some kind of a problem that you’re going through, being very caring and very helpful,” she shares. “I helped him in college to become a better student, and he became a fabulous student. He has helped me. I’ve gone through years of pain, migraine and so forth, and he always helped me along with that and kept me out of the way when I was sick. He was very helpful.”
However, Bonnie believes their “wonderful” sons, Michael and Robert, are “the best thing in our marriage” as well as their grandchildren. “That’s the best thing that ever happened to us. And it happened after losing a child, after great pain and sadness, and then we got these two wonderful boys, and they have been a joy the whole marriage. I can’t imagine life without them,” she says.
Williams feels the couple ultimately got “lucky” in love, too, as they celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary on Sunday, June 30.
“We never had a problem of working against each other because [of] different careers,” the There I Go Again author says. “Whatever happened for the good, the other one was pleased about it. It was important that they were not envious of each other or anything stupid like that. We got along very well.”
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Praising his longtime love, William says, “She is a very competent woman. She’s smart, and I leave a lot of things up to her.”
“She’s kind of in charge of all the business, all the money, all of that,” he adds. “She takes care of that.”
After all this time, Bonnie admits she will “never stop being surprised” by her husband of 73 years.
“Every once in a while, he’ll do something, and I think, ‘Where did that come from? Where did that come from?’ Or, he the same with me,” she says. “We never stop being surprised by what somebody does.”
