With more than 200 film credits to his name, Samuel L. Jackson is one of the hardest-working (and highest-grossing) stars in the business. But the legendary actor, now 76, didn’t reach the proverbial mountaintop alone. His wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson — an accomplished actress and director in her own right — has been a steady force in his life for more than five decades. Together, they have built one of the longest-lasting marriages in Hollywood.
"I’ve done sh-t in my marriage that’s crazy,” Jackson told AARP Magazinein 2024, when asked how the couple has managed to stay together all these years. “She has, too, in her head, or whatever in reality, but you got to go, 'Is that a breakup offense?' Or is it just that we need to spend a little time together and get some understanding about it?"
Keep reading for a closer look at Jackson and LaTanya’s love story, including how they met and when they started a family.
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Who is Samuel L. Jackson’s wife?
Jackson has been married to fellow actor and Broadway powerhouse LaTanya Richardson Jackson since 1980 (and they’ve been together since 1970). A quick glance at the Pulp Fiction actor’s Instagram feed shows he’s still quite smitten with his wife of nearly 45 years. Celebrating their 39-year wedding anniversary in 2019, for instance, Jackson praised LaTanya for being his “rock.”
“Thanks for all you are,” he wrote. “You are Love, walking, talking, challenging & everlasting! I love you with all that I am.”
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The following year he marked their anniversary with an even more swoon-worthy message. “40 years ago today, sh-t got real! The slow drag of our lives pressed together, I led sometimes, sometimes she did,” Jackson wrote. “We finally found that rhythm where there was no leader, we moved as one. We’re still glued together, hip to hip, holding each other up, not covering as much of the floor, but owning & loving the space that’s ours.”
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Fast forward to March 2025, when LaTanya’s latest Broadway show, Purpose, opened, and Jackson couldn’t have been prouder: “LT SHOWED UP & SHOWED OUT!” he gushed. And he wasn’t lying: Purpose took home the Tony for best play and LaTanya was nominated for best lead actress (she lost to Sarah Snook).
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Related: Samuel L. Jackson Is His Wife's Number 1 Fan in Adorable Red Carpet Moment Captured on Video
Yes, and according to LaTanya, the couple made a “pact” to stay that way.
"In the beginning, we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their children with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, since everybody likes to pretend that that's not the dynamic of the African American family,” she told People in 2022. “That it's just children out here being raised by women, which we know is false. In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, 'We are going to stay together no matter what. We'll figure it out.'"
And “figure it out” they have, including when Jackson was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, a problem that came to a head around 1990, when LaTanya checked her husband into rehab. “I threatened to leave him if he didn’t see the rehab through,” she told The New York Timesin 2012. “I knew I couldn’t leave this boy I admired so much. But I resented him too. I hated it when he slurred his words. A wife hates to see her husband be weak.”
Shortly after Jackson left treatment, he booked his breakout role in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. More than 30 years later, reflecting on his wife’s push for him to get better, Jackson told People, "She gave me the chance to be the man I was supposed to be.”
Meantime, LaTanya's not doing so bad herself. She's received two best actress Tony nominations in her career so far, including for Purpose and for the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, in which she starred opposite Denzel Washington.
Related: Why LaTanya Richardson Jackson Called Samuel L. Jackson After Getting a Tony Nomination — but Didn’t Tell Him (Exclusive)
How did Samuel L. Jackson and his wife meet?
The couple met as students at their respective HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) when Jackson was at Morehouse and LaTanya was at Spelman, both in Atlanta.
“Sam was not part of my circle,” LaTanya told The New York Times. “I was a theater snob; he loved movies.” Still, the budding actors wound up performing together on stage as members of the theatrical group Morehouse Spelman Players — and needless to say, sparks flew.
Jackson and LaTanya will celebrate 45 years of marriage on Aug. 18, 2025, but they’ve been in a relationship for about 55 years total.
Speaking to Jennifer Hudson, Jackson shared that he and his wife have different recollections of how they got engaged after a decade-long courtship. “My story was, I came home one day and she already had these invitations printed up and she gave me a stack and said, ‘Be here,’” he told the talk-show host.
Whereas, according to LaTanya, Jackson asked her grandfather for her hand in marriage so that he could walk her down the aisle before he died.
“That’s probably what happened. Because I was on drugs and I don’t know what the hell was going on in my life,” Jackson joked. “… But I like my version better because it sounds so much funnier.”
Have Samuel L. Jackson and wife LaTanya Richardson worked together?
They sure have. The couple most recently collaborated on the 2022 revival of The Piano Lesson, which LaTanya directed, making her the first woman to take the helm of an August Wilson play on Broadway. "[Theater is] where we started and, you know, we always expected this to happen," Jackson told ET. "We wanted to do this kind of thing forever, so we are pleased." (Jackson originated the role of Boy Willie in the original production of The Piano Lesson at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1987; he played Boy Willie’s uncle in the revival.)
On the big screen, the husband-wife duo has appeared in four movies together: Juice (1992), Losing Isaiah (1995), Freedomland (2006), and Mother and Child (2009).
Do Samuel L. Jackson and his wife have kids?
The pair welcomed daughter Zoe Dove Jackson on March 28, 1982. Now 43, Zoe is a TV producer whose worked on several prominent reality and competition shows, including Top Chef, Top Chef Jr., Project Runway and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her work on RuPaul’s Drag Race earned her an Emmy in 2021 and a Producers Guild of America Award in 2022.
“It’s been my goal since this Super Person entered my life to put a smile on her face,” Jackson wrote on Instagram for his daughter’s 41st birthday. “Not just for her happiness, but selfishly for mine! It makes my heart & soul sing when she smiles for me, it fills me up like nothing else!!”
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LaTanya is equally effusive when it comes to her only child, and she also praises her husband for being an “exceptional dad" — which, for Jackson, has always been an imperative.
“My dad was an absentee dad, so it was always important to me that I was part of my daughter’s life, and she deserved two parents, which is part of the rationale behind us staying married for 30 years,” he said in 2011. “Because everybody has a chance to say, ‘F--k it,’ and walk away, you know? But you also have a chance to say, ‘OK, f--k it, I’m sorry.’ Even if you’re not.” Free advice from a legend!
Next: Find Out Samuel L. Jackson's Staggering Net Worth
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