While we all have couples in our lives we look up to, whether it’s our parents, grandparents or friends, we’ve often also looked at celebrity couples for some relationship inspiration too. After all, it’s easy to be reminded of their love with PDA-filled red carpets here and there (we’re talking about you Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman!).
So, as we continue to look for relationship advice from Hollywood’s greatest power couples, Brooke Shields, who’s been happily married to her husband Chris Henchy since 2001, recently imparted some sage wisdom.
“Always have forgiveness in your heart, but make sure that you communicate about it,” Shields told Us Weekly during promo for her new Netflix movie, Mother of the Bride. “Don’t just give forgiveness and say, ‘Oh, well, I guess this is the way it is’ or, ‘Oh, I’ll forgive that behavior,’ or [do it] just to keep the peace.”
Instead, Shields recommends actually sitting down and talking about it. “Instead of pointing the finger, like, ‘You made me feel like this,’ just [change] the vernacular [to], ‘I got to be honest. I really felt like this when that happened, what was going on with you?’” she explained.
After a further conversation about the circumstances of the fight or misunderstanding, only then will actual forgiveness be able to take place. “And then you decide if you really want to forgive the person, but to just forgive blindly so that you stay together? It’s going to implode one day,” she added. “That is my opinion.” And what an expert opinion at that!
Most recently, Shields sat down with SheKnows alongside her Mother of the Bride co-star Benjamin Bratt to chat about their movie and blossoming friendship. “I’m so happy that we not only get a chance to get to work together, that we actually have established a real and hopefully lasting friendship,” Bratt said of Shields.
“It’s rare for that to happen,” Shields added. “When we were thrown all together in this very foreign place, really isolated, we didn’t have our families to go back to at night, so we were with each other all the time. It’s a quick bonding that’s accelerated.”
“It’s really nice when you watch all the different people just come to really have a good time, give their best and hopefully make a story that is and funny,” Shields said.
Before you go, click here to see the longest celebrity marriages.
