Dick Van Dyke Talks Large Age Gap with Wife Arlene Silver in New Comments Ahead of 100th Birthday
Dick Van Dyke has been in a relationship with Arlene Silver for nearly 20 years and they are not bothered by their 46-year age gap.
The longtime couple met at the SAG Awards in 2006, where Arlene was working as a makeup artist, and got married in 2012.
In a new interview with People ahead of his upcoming 100th birthday on December 13, Dick commented on why their age differences are not an issue.
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“We thought it might be [a problem] in some regard, to some extent, but it hasn’t really,” he said. “I’m infantile to start with. I think I’m about 13, so that’s been a problem and she’s quite mature for her age, so I don’t think we haven’t had any problem with age at all.”
Dick also talked about meeting Arlene at the SAG Awards and how something came over him to introduce himself.
“One thing I had never done was ever approach a strange woman in my life. She walked by, and without thinking, I jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ [I] asked her to sit down and found out she was a makeup lady and I hired her on the spot,” he said.
Dick credits Arlene for helping him stay youthful.
“She’s responsible for keeping me in the moment,” he said. “She’s kept me happy every day of my life, every day. She’s a joy. She can get me singing or dancing and she carries so much responsibility … I’m just lucky.”
There are lots of couples in Hollywood with big age gaps, going all the way up to 49 years.