More than one friend has joked that the reason we’ve made it this far is because we spend quite a bit of time apart, and by apart I mean almost 10,000 miles apart for months at a time. Yes, we spent our 25th wedding anniversary on opposite sides of the planet this year. Maybe that is the secret to a long and happy marriage but I prefer to think that we’ve stuck it out this long in spite of the long separations due to the crazy and eclectic nature of Alan’s work as an actor.

He is back in Cape Town, South Africa again, working on season two of the powerful and gorgeous looking science fiction series “Dominion” for the Syfy Network. This time last year we were there together (for Dominion, season one) on safari. In fact we toasted our 24th year of wedded bliss standing on the bush veldt at night surrounded by zebra, wildebeest and possibly a lion or two, wondering how we could ever top that experience for our 25th.

It’s ok. We’ll celebrate when we see each other in a few months. A stunning arrangement of fresh Spring flowers appeared on my doorstep on April 8th and we speak via Facetime every single day. That’s what I signed up for when I married a handsome actor in the gardens of the historic Rippon Lea mansion in Melbourne all those years ago in front of our closest friends and family.

I love that my husband gets to do a job he adores. He encourages me to do the same and wherever that takes us, we just make it work. And it has taken us to some pretty extraordinary places. Whenever we can, our family tries to go along to each of Alan’s jobs, even if it’s just for a short time. We moved to Los Angeles from Australia fifteen years ago and have followed him to Vancouver, New Orleans, Miami, New York, Cairns – Australia, Queenstown – New Zealand, Cape Town – South Africa, and London – England to watch him work and create his characters all the while providing for his family.

I think our secret is to never call each other mean names, even in the most heated of arguments. We really never have done that. We try to outdo each other when it comes to helping out around the house, with the kids, and doing nice things for each other. We also  try to appreciate how lucky we’ve been. There have been plenty of challenges along the way but that was always going to be part of any marriage.

My wish for our next 25 years is to be able to travel with my husband, spending less time apart while catching up with our far flung family and seeing the sights together rather than having one of us keeping the home fires burning while the other sits, a bit lonely in strange hotel rooms, trying to stay busy. In the meantime, I’ll keep things ticking along here at home so he doesn’t have to worry and can concentrate on what he does best.

I do think I have the best side of this deal, getting to be with our children, and dog in our warm, happy home. I think he would swap with me in a heartbeat.

Happy Anniversary my darling xxx