Samuel L. Jackson, the iconic actor known for his commanding screen presence, recently shared his reflections on his enduring 44-year marriage to wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson. In an interview with AARP, the 75-year-old actor opened up about the secret to maintaining their decades-long relationship, which began when they were both college students in Atlanta.
Jackson met LaTanya in 1970 while attending Morehouse College, while LaTanya was studying at Spelman College. A decade later, the couple tied the knot and now share a daughter, Zoe Jackson. Reflecting on their journey, Jackson attributed their lasting bond to tolerance and the ability to navigate each other’s imperfections.
“A lot of tolerance, because everybody’s got flaws, and not giving up when it would be easy to give up,” Jackson shared when asked how they’ve kept their marriage strong for over four decades. He candidly admitted, “I’ve done s— in my marriage that’s crazy, you know? She has, too, in her head, or whatever in reality, but you got to go, ‘Is that a breakup offense?’”
For Jackson and LaTanya, compromise and understanding are key. “Or is it just that we need to spend a little time together and get some understanding about it?” he mused. The couple has learned to accept certain things about each other over the years, one of which is Jackson’s workaholic nature. “One of the things she had to accept is that I’m going to go to work. I’m going to go to work all the time until, you know, it’s time.”
In the same interview, Jackson touched on a personal milestone outside of Hollywood—his journey to Gabonese citizenship. The actor’s roots were traced back to Gabon while working on the documentary Enslaved, which delved into the history of slave ships that never made it to their destinations. His genetic ancestry revealed that he was from the Benga tribe in Gabon.
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After this discovery, Jackson returned to Gabon for an initiation ceremony and was granted citizenship. “I went back to Gabon, and they had a whole initiation ceremony into the tribe, and they gave me a passport,” he recalled. Describing the moment as “moving,” Jackson spoke about the complex emotions that arose from standing where slave ships once departed.
“I guess you don’t know what survivor’s remorse is until you’re standing where the slave ships had been sitting in the ocean just looking at the horizon,” Jackson said. He described the experience as surreal, especially when he met the chief of the Benga tribe, who bore a striking resemblance to his best friend from New York. In that moment, Jackson felt a profound connection to his heritage. “I saw girls that I’d had relationships with from high school or wherever, and I saw me in different places. So it’s a deep thing to find out that you belong somewhere.”
For Jackson, both his marriage and his rediscovered heritage stand as testaments to the power of resilience and the importance of understanding one’s past. Through all the ups and downs, whether in his personal life or his ancestral journey, Samuel L. Jackson continues to live with purpose, grounded in love, family, and history.
