Sheryl Lee Ralph Shares Secrets to Making Long-Distance Marriage Work

Sheryl Lee Ralph revealed the way she makes her long-distance marriage work.

The 68-year-old Abbott Elementary star spoke to People about her relationship with Vincent Hughes, to whom she has been married since 2005.

The couple first met while Ralph was starring in Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway, just four years after she divorced her first husband, Eric Maurice. The actress shares her adult children, Etienne and Coco, with Maurice.

"I'm very fortunate. The man that I am married to is Senator Vincent Hughes, seventh Senatorial district of Pennsylvania," Ralph told People. “You fall in love with somebody and you realize he's not leaving his career. He's not leaving Philadelphia. I'm not leaving Hollywood … When you have children, it’s very difficult."

Despite maintaining separate careers and homes, Ralph said that they found a solution that helped maintain their bond for nearly two decades.

"Every two weeks we saw each other, and it has continued to work out well. When I go to see him, I love to see him. When it’s time to leave, ‘Bye-bye. See you soon.’ I’m telling you, life is good,” Ralph explained.

"He has his own life. I have my own life. He has his own real career, I have my own real career. He has his light to stand in, I have my light to stand in,” she added. “He is not looking at me, thinking about status or this or that. He's doing his thing. I get to do my thing."

Ralph told People she and her husband will be celebrating twenty years of marriage and noted, “Some people can’t even get through two. So it’s all good. It is all good.”

The Emmy-award winning actress also said she learned after her divorce how to deal with issues head-on, saying, “I’ve evolved into [saying], ‘Let’s talk about it.’ If you sit in problems, you get anxious, depressed, and all the juiciness in life starts to dry up. I can’t have that, because all of that will mess with my good looks!”

Ralph’s comments come not long after she went viral for comments she made during an interview on the red carpet of Out Magazines’s Out100 event when asked if her relationship was “technically long distance.”

“Oh, listen, my husband and I are technically very married,” she told People at the event. “We will be celebrating 20 years next year, and people always say, ‘Well, how does that work? How does that work?’ I said Dolly Parton knows how it works. She's been married for 50 years. You have never seen her husband one time, you know why? Cause they plan on staying married.”

She continued, “My husband and I, guess what we plan on? Staying married. Thank you. Our business is in the bedroom. Thank you.”