Julianne Moore’s answer was not a guaranteed formula: in a September 2020 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, she said both partners have to want the marriage and be willing to work at it. She also stressed enjoying one another and making each other laugh.
What Moore said about her marriage
Moore appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show on September 28, 2020. The show’s listing described the conversation as covering the key to her 17-year marriage, parenting and home design; its episode title referred to the couple’s 24-year relationship at that time. Those figures describe how the show framed the relationship in 2020, not its duration today. The episode listing.
In a contemporaneous account of the interview, Moore put mutual commitment first: “The only thing I can say is I think that you both have to really want to be married,” she said. She added that couples should have a good time together and make each other laugh: “You really have to have a good time. I think they have to make you laugh, if they don’t make you laugh it’s just deadly.” Just Jared’s September 2020 report.
How her later comments add context
Later coverage presents compatible ideas rather than a different, definitive recipe. A 2025 report attributing its account to People summarizes Moore’s advice as enjoying each other’s company, making time for each other’s lives, building a life together and acting as a team. It also quotes her saying, “I think you have to enjoy being together.” FemaleFirst’s 2025 report.
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A 2024 report describing an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK similarly highlights presence and time together, including shared home and family activities. The original interview pages were not reviewed for these later accounts, so they are best understood as reported summaries, not as a complete transcript. Promiflash’s 2024 report.
How Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich met
A 2025 report says Moore and Freundlich met in 1996 while working on The Myth of Fingerprints, and married in August 2003. FemaleFirst’s report provides those dates. An archival 2001 Vanity Fair profile describes Freundlich as Moore’s boyfriend and discusses their collaboration, confirming they were together before marrying but not establishing the later wedding date. The 2001 profile.
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What her advice does—and does not—claim
Moore was describing her own experience, not offering a scientifically tested explanation for why marriages last. Her comments point to mutual willingness, effort, shared enjoyment and time together as things she values in her relationship. They do not establish that those qualities alone guarantee a lasting marriage.
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