Jeff Bridges and wife of nearly 50 years survive tough times thanks to making this key choice

Jeff Bridges may have experienced "love at first sight" with his wife of almost 50 years, Susan, but making their marriage last has taken work. 

On Dax Shepard’s "Armchair Expert" podcast, Bridges said, "The mystery is still there after 50 years of who exactly is this person. As we talk about it, and she comes to my mind, it's really remarkable how she has fulfilled my dreams, man." 

Bridges and Susan met in 1975 when she was working as a waitress and he was filming "Rancho Deluxe."

"It was like a love at first sight, and it's grown," the Oscar winner said.

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He continued, "They really don't tell you if you hang in it can grow into incredible depths of intimacy and love, and certainly you go through those times where you're tested, and then you've got a choice: you can move on, end up getting a divorce, or you can really use it as a takeoff spot. Sit down and really give it up to each other."

When they hit a tough spot, which Bridges described as a "primal battle," he explained, "the essence of it is 'You don't get it, you don't understand what it's like to be me dealing with you.’"

To solve it, he said, "We sit close and look in each other’s eyes and one person gives you their perspective and the other guy just receives it. Don’t try to take notes about your rebuttal. We do that back and forth and it seems to itch it a little bit. But the basic thing that comes out of it for me is that, 'You're so right, I don't get it and you don't get it, we don't get it. Isn't that wonderful? And here we are and what are we going to do? We have to love.'" 

Bridges added, "We have to hold these opposites. And then you make that choice and it grows, and you learn from all those missteps."

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The "Big Lebowski" star told People magazine in 2020 he and his wife "are quite different as people, and we celebrate that rather than making it drive us apart. I respect her wisdom, and I’m sure the girls do too. I’ve really been blessed."

The couple married in 1977 and share three daughters, Isabelle, Jessica and Hayley.

Bridges faced serious health complications over the past few years, first being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020, and later contracting COVID-19 after his final round of chemotherapy.

"Shortly after finding out that good news, I got a letter from the treatment center where I was getting my chemo, and they told me that there was a possibility that I had been exposed to COVID," Bridges told Fox News Digital at the time. "That meant me being in the hospital for five weeks, very close to, you know, kicking the bucket. I mean, I was very sick."

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He told People in 2022 that the ordeal left him "pretty close to dying."

Thankfully, he recovered and he was able to walk his youngest, Hayley, down the aisle for her 2021 wedding. 

"Finally, one day I said, ‘Maybe I can do it, you know?’" Bridges told The Independent in 2021. "And it turns out I not only got to walk her down the aisle, but I got to do the wedding dance. That was terrific."

On "Armchair Expert," the actor said, "the worst part" of acting was "being away from my family and kids," but he does try to connect at night through Facetime and other methods.