LaTanya Richardson and Samuel L. Jackson Have Been Together for Over Five Decades

Actor Samuel L. Jackson isn’t just a respected name in Hollywood — he’s a legend. But he's also a respectable man, and that’s because he’s been married to the same woman for over five decades! Samuel's wife, LaTanya Richardson, recalled the first time she saw him during her November 2022 visit to The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. She described him as "so fine," saying, "He had a huge afro and these little glasses, and he was really tall. Mod Squad looking ... just a brother."

At the time of the interview, the couple had been together for 54 years, which means in 2025, they’ll celebrate 57 years of marriage! Pretty impressive for a Hollywood couple, right?

As you can imagine, Samuel and LaTanya have been through a lot during their lengthy marriage. So, let’s take it all the way back to the 1970s when they first met and walk through their relationship timeline, detailing all the major events of their lives so far.

Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson first crossed paths in 1970 when she was an undergrad at Spelman College and he was at Morehouse College. The two began performing together as members of the Morehouse-Spelman Players, according to People, and at some point, they went on to date.

Ten years after meeting and beginning their relationship, Samuel and LaTanya tied the knot. During their joint appearance on The Graham Norton Show in 2020, LaTanya shared that she told Samuel they had to get married because her grandfather was ill and she wanted him to walk her down the aisle. Samuel jokingly questioned if he ever proposed, but LaTanya quickly reminded him that he did.

She explained that she first told him to ask her grandfather for permission and then ask her if she wanted to marry him. While the event is a bit of a blur to Samuel, they both found the memory pretty comical (as did the audience!).

By 1982, Sam and LaTanya welcomed their first and only child, Zoe, whom they affectionately nicknamed "Zoe Dove." The couple often features their daughter in their social media content, showcasing just how close they are. Now 42 years old, Zoe has gone on to become an Emmy-award-winning TV producer.

While things were going well for the happy couple, there was a "demon," so to speak, lurking in Samuel's life — one that had entered it in the late '60s but became a serious issue in the 1980s — his alcohol and drug addiction. He began drinking, smoking weed, and experimenting with LSD during his college years, according to The Guardian.

By the late 1980s, things took a dark turn, with a "crack-induced meltdown" that involved his 8-year-old daughter finding him "zonked out in the kitchen." This moment marked a turning point. By 1991, Samuel was clean, but it took hard work and determination to get there.

Samuel continued to act and work toward greater things, like starting the Samuel L. and LaTanya R. Jackson Foundation in 1999. The couple has been incredibly generous, with one example being their $5 million donation to refurbish the Fine Arts Building at Spelman College, according to AARP.

After stepping away from the stage for over a decade, Samuel returned to reprise his role as Doaker Charles in The Piano Lesson, a Broadway production directed by LaTanya.

Today, the couple is still going strong, and perhaps that’s because they share a deep understanding and respect for each other. As Samuel explained, "One of the things she had to accept is that I’m going to go to work. I’m going to go to work all the time until, you know, it’s time," he admitted during a 2024 AARP interview.

He also shared, "I’ve done s--t in my marriage that’s crazy, you know? She has, too, in her head, or whatever in reality," but it seems these weren’t "breakup offenses," as he put it, since they’re still together.