When the legendary entertainer Dick van Dyke was in his golden years, he met Arlene Silver and was instantly smitten with the woman who is almost half a century younger.
Recently, the actor, 99, opened up about Silver “marrying an old man,” and the couple shared their secrets to 13 years of wedded bliss.
In an industry where relationships are often as short-lived as movie premieres, the enduring love story between Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver is nothing short of cinematic. It began in 2006 at the SAG Awards, where Van Dyke, already a Hollywood icon in his 80s, met Silver, a vivacious and talented makeup artist in her 30s.
The moment he laid eyes on her, something clicked.
“I never said hello to a strange girl in my life. I was too scared,” he told People in a candid interview. “But I was at a show backstage, and she walked by, and for some reason, I just jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ There’s something about her and got me, and I was right.”
At the time, the Mary Poppins star was still with Michelle Triola Marvin, who he started dating in 1976 while married to his first wife Margie Willett. Van Dyke and Marvin never married but the two were together until she died of lung cancer in 2009.
Admitting that he was “writhing in guilt” over cheating on his first wife, Van Dyke honored the relationship he shared with Marvin and brought Silver into his world, hiring her as his personal makeup artist.
‘It’ll never work’
In their working relationship, the two were laying a strong foundation that quietly evolved into a heartfelt romance.
In 2012, Van Dyke married the woman who he joked was his “child bride.”
Speaking with the Huffington Post in 2016, they both revealed that they had their doubts about the 46 year age gap between them.
“I thought… ‘There’s no way that this could ever work,’” Arlene said ahead of her 4th wedding anniversary to the star of 1968’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Van Dyke added, “My brother just said, ‘It’ll never work. What do you talk about? What do you do together?…The fact is, we talk all the time, and we do everything together.”
‘Marrying an old man’
In 2022, in an interview with Closer Weekly, Van Dyke also admitted that he worried the public would object to their age gap.
“I thought there would be an outcry about a gold digger marrying an old man,” he told the outlet at the time. “But no one ever took that attitude.”
“We share an attitude. She can go with the flow. She loves to sing and dance, which we do almost every day. She’s just delightful,” the actor mused.
“He is the most perfect human being. I’ve never met anyone so happy, so genuine, so amazing. He’s just like a happy pill,” Silver added.
Vandy Camp
On April 20, the actor, who will be a centenarian in December, and 53-year-old Silver had a chat with People at the “supercalifragilistic” Vandy Camp, an event that supports the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation (LAEPF) Community Brigade.
“We just love being home. We love Malibu, and it’s our favorite place, our house especially. So, this is like our, you’re at our house,” Silver said of the event that’s described on its Instagram page as “A whimsical, vintage circus. An experience like no other.”
“We’re so grateful. Our house did get hit by the Franklin fire, but in the scheme of things, we got very lucky,” she adds of the devastating fires that ripped through Malibu and surrounding areas in December 2024.
‘Eerie how well it works’
Van Dyke and Silver also spilled the secrets behind their joy-filled, lasting love story.
“We get along so well,” said Van Dyke, who’s soon releasing his autobiographical book, “100 Rules for Living to 100.”
“We just care about each other so much,” Silver gushed.
“Everybody said it wouldn’t work,” Van Dyke said before Silver added: “Yeah. I mean it’s like eerie how well it works. People the same age don’t last.”
“He’s made me feel like I can do anything,” she continued as her doting husband chimed in: “And you can.”
“Very supportive of each other,” Silver adds.
‘Everybody should dance’
And if you’re wondering how at 99 the iconic star remains so sprightly, he told NPR that he keeps moving and loves to dance.
“Everybody should dance,” he explained. “And everybody should sing. People say, ‘Well, I can’t sing.’ Everybody can sing. That you do it badly is no reason not to sing. I have a beautiful, young wife who sings and dances, so there’s a lot of [duets] going on at my house.”
In a world where love stories often come with caveats, this couple stand as a shining example that the heart knows no age. Their relationship, rooted in fun, friendship, and mutual admiration, is proof that sometimes, the most unexpected unions create the most magical stories.
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