Marriage in Tinseltown is nothing short of a brief partnership that usually ends in bitter divorce and roaring media scandals. The institution of marriage as such is quasi non-existent and it’s all happening, presumably, because of the hectic lives celebrities lead. With all this, there still are some exceptions that come to prove to skeptics that, in Hollywood too, there are times when love can, and does last. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening are one of those happy couples and now we too can learn their secret recipe for a successful marriage.

Thanks to All Women’s Talk, which went through the trouble of looking up past interviews with the two iconic actors, we find that, in fact, for Warren and Annette too, marriage is where love meets compromise. It’s nothing like we see in the movies or read in books, but rather thinking about the other person at all times – and it is precisely this that makes the two less of celebrities and more like us, “mortals,” and their love story all the more remarkable.

Warren met Annette in 1991 on the set of “Bugsy,” married her one year later, had four children with her and, according to his own words, never stopped loving her. Yet, the first secret for a successful marriage in Hollywood that Annette reveals is, strangely enough, all about the kids. As a celebrity, she tells the Washington Post, you should always make sure your kids know the difference between the person you are at home and your public persona. “You try to avoid a big schism between who they experience as their parent and the person that people perceive in public. I have to have some faith that they’ll be able to handle this,” Annette explains. 

Second comes knowing that acting is just another job and far from something that defines you as an individual, a mistake that most of today’s young stars make quite often. “I knew I wanted children in my life. The acting was always in relation to it. Life at home is chaos. They’re wonderful. They’re such interesting human beings. I just love it,” Annette explains to the same media outlet.

Jealousy is often reason for divorce, and that’s definitely not restricted to celebrities. However, it is in Hollywood that the rate of separation is soaring, and has been for the recent years. Annette and Warren are well aware of that, as they also are of the reason that makes the “green monster” rear its ugly head: fame and subsequent exposure. “You’ve got to make peace with it. By and large it’s okay. You’re an object of people’s projections, certainly with my husband being so famous for so many years. That’s out of your control,” Annette tells the Post about how she learned to let go of her jealousy.

While the two actors have been married for 16 whole years now, one thing that neither he nor she ever regretted was the age when they had children. Kids for a celebrity, Warren says, are not a burden but a reason to be thankful and happy, just like with regular people. “There’s no point in regretting anything, because then they wouldn’t have been these kids. And I don’t know if I had the capacity to do it before,” Warren tells Fox News.

Speaking of age, the legendary actor also reveals that nothing should mar the daily existence of a happy family, and certainly no regrets of any kind. Life is what we make of it, and no time is a better time than the present. “When [the kids] are jumping on your stomach, making a trampoline out of you at six in the morning, that’s fun for me. That’s present tense,” the actor tells CNN.

In the age of speed that we’re living in now (in more ways than one), it is good to see that it’s people, famous people, like Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, coming to teach us a lesson in learning to value what we have before it’s gone. This, and much more, is what makes their love story a truly beautiful and remarkable one.