Kevin Kline Says Not Living in Hollywood Is the Secret to His Successful 35-Year Marriage to Phoebe Cates

Mar. 15, 2025

Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline in 2017.Photo:Kevin Mazur/Getty

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Kevin KlineandPhoebe Cateshave been married for over 35 years — and the actor credits the success of their relationship to the long distance between them and Hollywood.

Speaking withBusiness Insiderfor a story published Thursday, Oct. 24, 77-year-old Kline opened up about how he and Cates, who starred inFast Times at Ridgemont HighandGremlins,keep their marriage fresh after so many years and so much time in the entertainment industry.

Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline in 2009.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

According to the Oscar winner, he and Cates don’t have a “Hollywood marriage” because they’ve lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for most of their relationship. Kline also joked that he meant it figuratively, as he and the former actress don’t consider themselves celebrities, in the traditional sense of the word.

“That’s why you’ll see no Botox. These are my lips, what’s left of them,” Kline joked.

Additionally, Cates' support for him over the years is one of the main reasons they’ve kept their relationship so strong.

“She’s got her head on her shoulders, unlike me. I usually have my head on her shoulders, too. She’s a great wife, a great mother, great person, and she keeps me honest,” he said, before joking: “Except for in interviews.”

The pair met at an audition in 1982 and married in a private N.Y.C ceremony seven years later. They went on to welcome two children —son Owen, born in 1991, and daughter Greta, born in 1994— raising them in the city.

An archival photo of the couple.LGI Stock/Corbis/VCG via Getty

LGI Stock/Corbis/VCG via Getty

When their kids reached elementary school age, Kline revealed that Cates had decided to step back from acting and instead focus on her N.Y.C. clothing boutique.

”We have agreed to alternate so that we’re never working at the same time,” Kline said in 1998. ”Whenever it’s been her slot to work, Phoebe has chosen to stay with the children.”

Despite her retirement from acting, Cates, Kline and their kids appeared in Cates’sFast Timescostar Jennifer Jason-Leigh’sThe Anniversary Partyin 2001.

Kline once jokingly shared that he had some doubts about their compatibility after they first met, tellingEntertainment Weeklyin 2002 he worried she was “too happy” for him.

”When I first met Phoebe, I remember thinking, ‘She’s too happy to be with me,’ ” the actor toldEW. “ ‘She’s too enthusiastic about life. …. What’ll we talk about?’ ”

source: people.com