Annette Bening and Warren Beatty: What Keeps Their Marriage Strong
Abbey Bender
Annette Bening and Warren Beatty are Hollywood's ultimate power couple. Here's a look at how the stars have stayed married for 32 years.
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Woman's World
Annette Bening and Warren Beatty have been one of our favorite Hollywood couples for over 30 years. The actors have been married since 1992 and have four children, and they’re still going strong. Now Bening has her fifth Oscar nomination, for her role as real-life swimmer Diana Nyad in Nyad (she’s previously been nominated for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right) — and we can’t wait to see her and her legendary husband at the ceremony on Sunday.

Here’s a look back at Bening and Beatty’s three decades as one of the most talented, attractive and enduring celebrity duos.

How Annette Bening and Warren Beatty first met

Annette Bening and Warren Beatty first met in 1990, during the production of the film Bugsy, in which Beatty played the real-life ’40s gangster Bugsy Siegel and Bening played his love interest, Virginia Hill. Their chemistry onscreen proved to be very real: As soon as Beatty met Bening, he called Bugsy‘s director, Barry Levinson, and told him “I love her, and I’m going to marry her.”

Two charismatic actors pairing up isn’t usually a surprise, but in the case of Bening and Beatty, it was. Beatty, of course, was known for his womanizing ways, and over the years he was romantically linked to Joan Collins, Julie Christie, Michelle Phillips, Diane Keaton, Madonna and many other famous and beautiful women.

Benning and Beatty’s marriage was covered breathlessly in the media, as people couldn’t believe the Bonnie and Clyde star was finally settling down after so many years of being Hollywood’s most famous bachelor.

Beatty had a different take, saying, “It didn’t really surprise me. I always felt I wasn’t trying to avoid marriage, I was trying to avoid divorce. I had no doubt when I met Annette that it was time to get married.”

Annette Bening and Warren Beatty’s cinematic collaborations

Bening and Beatty were both praised for their performances in Bugsy, the movie that brought them together, and they’d share the screen twice more, in Love Affair and Rules Don’t Apply. Love Affair was a 1994 remake of a 1939 romance, notable for featuring Katharine Hepburn in her final role, while Rules Don’t Apply, a 2016 film set in ’50s Hollywood, was Beatty’s final work to date as director and star.

Love Affair and Rules Don’t Apply both fared poorly at the box office, and the pair didn’t appear onscreen together again. In an interview, Bening admitted that acting alongside Beatty was challenging due to the many preconceived notions around their high-profile marriage. As she bluntly put it, “If you work together it’s like standing there with a sign saying, ‘Come on and throw something.'”

What the couple have said about each other

While Bening and Beatty keep a fairly low profile for a celebrity couple, they’ve publicly said a number of swoon-worthy things about each other. In a Today Show interview, Beatty said, “The most important thing that’s ever happened — the best thing that’s ever happened to me — was Annette and having four kids.”

In a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Bening shared her first impression of Beatty, saying, “He was incredibly intelligent. [That was] the biggest aphrodisiac… Funny and super smart. Now, he is also very handsome… I thought, ‘Wow, this is quite a guy.'”

The pair have also spoken about their mutual respect and admiration, and Bening shared, “I think marriage is like the greatest thing and greatest challenge to really make it all work and to stay together, and that is the thing that I am so, so proud of with us.”

Like in any good relationship, Benning and Beatty prioritize open communication. As Bening described in an AARP interview, “We talk a lot about everything. Some people pay lip service to listening to others and they’re really not listening. He does.”

While Bening and Beatty are one of the most famous couples in the entertainment industry, the admiring way they speak about one another always feels authentic and downright sweet. After 32 years of marriage, they’re as much of a power couple as ever, and they seem just as enamored of each other as they did when they first met.

Read on for more of our favorite celebrity couples!

The Most Surprising and Romantic Ways 10 Celebrity Couples First Met

14 Celebrity Couples Who’ve Been Together for 20+ Years Share Their Marriage Secrets