“I have been with my wife for a number of years now and the number one thing that keeps us strong is a mutual respect; that is first and foremost,” Chestnut told ESSENCE in 2014 of his rock solid relationship with wife Pam Byse, who was right beside him at the premiere of his new psychological thriller, When the Bough Breaks.
Like we said, for Chestnut, in so many ways, his art often imitates his life. In 2014, when asked which of his characters he felt was most relatable to he really is, he answered: “I find myself in each character, so there is a part of me in most of my characters. I would say Lance (The Best Man Holiday) is pretty close to who I am, just in terms of his priorities in life, how he treats his family, how he treats his wife and his passion for sports.”
Morris and his lovely wife Pam shine at the premiere of Universal Pictures’ The Best Man Holiday in Los Angeles, California. It’s hard to tell this photo apart from a picture of the couple together at the premiere of the orignal film, The Best Man, in 1999. Seriously, it’s as if neither or them have aged a day.
“When I met my wife, there were a lot of qualities I was paying attention to,” Chestnut once told ESSENCE. “I knew that she would be a great mother just for how she cared for her nephew and her family. She respected her mother and she respected her family and those were some of the initial qualities that I saw that I thought would make her a great partner.”