Photos Of Rodney And Holly Robinson Peete Over The Years

In 1995, former NFL star Rodney Peete wed actress Holly Robinson of 21 Jump Street and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper fame. Almost 30 years later, they’ve welcomed four children, created a successful and impactful non-profit organization called the HollyRod Foundation, which has a popular annual event, DesignCare, to raise funds, and have remained a strong, united, and very much in love pair.

In the beginning, though, the chemistry wasn’t necessarily off the charts. The two were set up on a blind date in the early ’90s and ended up meeting at a nightclub in LA.

“It was definitely not love at first sight, by any stretch of the imagination,” Holly said on the couple’s former shortlived OWN reality series, For Peete’s Sake.

“This girl ordered a whole bunch of french fries, put ketchup and hot sauce all on the fries, eating them with both hands, not even worried about what she was looking like because I don’t think she was really interested in me,” he recounted. “But I was certainly interested in her.”

It didn’t take long for her to realize though that Rodney was different.

“There was something about him that I was drawn to,” she said.

“From that point on I stalked her friends basically,” he admitted. “‘Do you think she likes me? Do you think she’d go out with me?’ or whatever. That’s how we met, that’s how we got going, and the rest is history.”

A key to the pair’s longevity has been having an open line of communication. “For us, the glue, the secret sauce has been trying to stay on the same page. Continuing to communicate with each other and then Rodney Peete’s willingness to talk to a therapist or marriage counselor has been key, key, key,” Holly told ESSENCE in 2023.

“We both had similar ideas of what we wanted for our lives, separately and collectively, and we talked about it,” Rodney added at the time. “We talked about it with a third party. We talked about the journey and what it was going to be and how it was going to be and how to handle certain things that would come up in our lives along the way. We found ourselves getting on the same page before we got married. So knowing that, when things could come up, we would be able to revert to some of the tools that we had early on and then still continue on with the counseling. That was important — that and being able to evolve together was a really important thing as well.”

The pair continues to evolve and is one of our favorite examples of thriving Black love. Check out a slew of gorgeous images of the beautiful couple below.