{"id":287651,"date":"2025-11-28T10:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/287651\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:03:13","slug":"dick-van-dyke-and-his-wife-arlene-never-had-problem-with-their-46-year-age-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/287651\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Van Dyke and his wife Arlene never had problem with their 46-year age gap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/films\/news\/dick-van-dyke-age-100-birthday-b2872440.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dick Van Dyke<\/a> has shared why he and his wife, Arlene Silver, never had an issue with their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/dick-van-dyke-wife-age-gap-relationship-b2736857.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">46-year age gap<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The actor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/dick-van-dyke-age-today-show-birthday-b2867610.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who&#8217;s turning 100 in<\/a> December, spoke about his marriage to Silver, 54, during a recent interview with People to discuss his new book, 100 Rules for Living to 100. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/dick-van-dyke-age-birthday-death-b2841183.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Van Dyke<\/a>, he and Silver are the perfect pair, despite the age difference. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thought it might be [a problem] in some regard, to some extent, but it hasn&#8217;t really,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/dick-van-dyke-on-46-year-age-difference-with-wife-arlene-11857521\">he explained<\/a>. \u201cI&#8217;m infantile to start with.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I&#8217;m about 13, so that&#8217;s been a problem and she&#8217;s quite mature for her age, so I don&#8217;t think we haven&#8217;t had any problem with age at all.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The Mary Poppins star also credits his wife, whom he married in 2012, for helping him feel young. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2158483445.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Dick Van Dyke credits his wife Arlene Silver for \u2018keeping him in the moment\u2019\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE\"\/>Dick Van Dyke credits his wife Arlene Silver for \u2018keeping him in the moment\u2019 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe&#8217;s responsible for keeping me in the moment,\u201d he added. \u201cShe&#8217;s kept me happy every day of my life, every day. She&#8217;s a joy. She can get me singing or dancing and she carries so much responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Dyke previously addressed the questions surrounding his and Silver\u2019s relationship. In April, he also told People that their age gap was the reason they got \u201calong so well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just care about each other so much,\u201d Silver chimed in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody said it wouldn&#8217;t work,\u201d Van Dyke said while his wife added, \u201cYeah. I mean it&#8217;s like eerie how well it works. People the same age don&#8217;t last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The couple first met at the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Silver was working, and Van Dyke was appearing during the ceremony. Although Van Dyke was 81 and she was 35 at the time, the two didn\u2019t strike up a romance until after Van Dyke\u2019s longtime partner, Michelle Triola Marvi, died from lung cancer in 2009. <\/p>\n<p>In 1984, Van Dyke finalized his split from his first wife, Margie Willett, who died in 2008. The pair welcomed four children \u2014 Christian, 75, Barry, 74, Stacy, 69, and Carrie, 63 \u2014 together. <\/p>\n<p>While promoting his new book, Van Dyke has also shared his secrets to living a long life, weeks before his 100th birthday. He told People he has successfully avoided anger and hate, which is \u201cone of the chief things that kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star, he has \u201cnever really able to work up a feeling of hate\u201d and attributes reaching 99 to his \u201cbrighter outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always thought that anger is one thing that eats up a person\u2019s insides \u2013 and hate,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere were things I didn\u2019t like, people I don\u2019t like and disapprove of. But I never really was able to do a white heat kind of hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/films\/news\/dick-van-dyke-age-wife-health-b2864417.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recent health diary for The Times, he confessed that he feels \u201cdiminished\u201d both \u201cphysically and socially\u201d<\/a>, and revealed that \u201cevery single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-287651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}