31 Photos Of Alfre Woodard And Roderick Spencer's Love Over The Years

What’s the key to making a marriage work for more than 40 years? For one, being willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work, the hard work, to keep the locomotive of love going. But according to Academy-Award nominated actress Alfre Woodard, it’s also about lightness, like being able to laugh together in good times and bad.

“You can cry about it, you can argue about it, and then sometimes in the middle of it all, you don’t know why, but something will make you laugh,” she told PEOPLE about getting through the “difficulties of life” in a partnership. The Scorpio has been married to husband Roderick Spencer since 1983, the two sharing two adult children, Mavis and Duncan, whom they adopted. He is a member of the Hollywood elite, too, but more so behind the camera as a writer and producer. They worked together on the 2019 Netflix film, Juanita, and are co-owners of Miss Maglashan Productions, Inc.

Being able to tap into joy has kept them going so strong they didn’t even do anything different to mark the big 4-0 in 2023.

“You know what? When it’s real, you don’t stop to mark a date,” she said. “We just would do what we would be doing. We don’t renew vows. I still have my same wedding band. If I want another ring, I put it on another hand.”

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She hasn’t opened up too much over the years about their bond in interviews, but if you follow Woodard on Instagram, you’ll see the Salem’s Lot star loves sharing throwback photos and present-day pics of her “baby daddy,” as she’s affectionately called him online. In addition to being that, he’s the person she connects with most in this life.

“I’ve been fortunate enough that we have continued to find that we learn best together, and that we work best together,” she said in 2021. “And there’s always been a strong artistic connection between us. That’s the bottom line. We speak the same language.”

One of our favorite actresses, she’s only getting busier (including recent work in the live-action The Lion King, The Book of Clarence, the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur TV series, Summer Camp and as mentioned, most recently, HBO’s Salem’s Lot), and better, just like her marriage.

Scroll through to see some sweet, classic, and recent images of Woodard and Spencer’s love over the years. Forty down, forever to go!