Inside Jamie Lee Curtis' 39-Year Love Story With Husband Christopher Guest

To know Jaime Lee Curtis, daughter of famed actress Janet Leigh, is to love Jaime Lee Curtis -- even from afar. She's played your favorite scream queen, '90s mom, and pretty much everything in between since her breakout role as Laurie Strode in the 1978 cult classic Halloween. The actress has made her way into just about every genre you can imagine, appearing in a whopping 52 movies and 26 TV shows and earning a long list of awards and accolades in the process.

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But it's not just her talent that drives her popularity with fans. It's also what she does with her fame and fortune. Curtis is a fierce advocate for mental health, addiction recovery and LGBTQ rights. She believes deeply in the power of human connection and uses her platform to amplify important causes, including her organization, My Hand In Yours, which raises money to support the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

As long as she's been living in the spotlight, she's also had a rock-solid support system to lean on: her husband of nearly four decades, actor Christopher Guest. And yes -- their love story is every bit as special as you'd expect.

How Did Jamie Lee Curtis Meet Her Husband?

You could say it was love at first sight for Curtis and Guest, except that the love was a little one-sided at first. In 2015, she interviewed her long-time pal and fellow actress Sigourney Weaver for Interview Magazine and revealed the whole story.

"I married Chris five months after seeing his picture in Rolling Stone. I said out loud to my friend, the late, great Debra Hill, 'Oh, I'm going to marry that guy.' It was a picture of Chris with Michael McKean and Harry Shearer from Spinal Tap [1984], but just as regular guys. Debra said, 'Oh, I know him, and he's with your agency. I tried to get him in a movie.' So I called the agent, left my number, but Chris never called me. And then I ran into him at a restaurant."

After realizing who he was, Curtis didn't approach Guest at the restaurant. But they did acknowledge each other's presence -- sort of.

"He was sitting about ten feet away, and he looked at me and kind of nodded," she said to Weaver in the interview. "I made a gesture, like, 'Hi, I'm the one who called you.' I was sitting with Melanie Griffith and Steven Bauer, and I looked down at my plate and whispered, 'Oh my God, I called this guy, and he never called me back, and there he is.'

"At that moment, Chris got up to leave. He shrugged his shoulders and basically waved goodbye. Not a word was exchanged. And then he called me the next day. He had kept my number. That was June 28, 1984, and I married him four months later, on December 18."

Their romance was definitely of the whirlwind variety. Curtis has spoken a lot of the randomness of it all, recently telling TODAY that her marriage is proof that "life hinges on a couple of seconds you never see coming." 

Whatever "it" was between Curtis and Guest, it certainly stuck. The couple has been happily married since 1984.

Who Is Jamie Lee Curtis' Husband?

Christopher Guest was already a U.K. household name before meeting Curtis in the early '80s. He's a writer, director, actor and composer best known for his iconic role as Nigel Tufnel in the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. The movie was a critical darling and built a cult-like following—even being deemed as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.

In addition to reprising his role as Nigel for multiple guest appearances on the talk show circuit and even animated shows like The Simpsons, Guest has also starred in (and directed) feature films like 1996's Waiting for Guffman, 2000's Best in Show and the 2003 classic A Mighty Wind. He also performed regularly on skits for Saturday Night Live right after This Is Spinal Tap was released. 

Guest's family is also notable: his father is the 5th Baron of Saling, a hereditary peer in the U.K. Guest became the 5th Baron himself after his dad died in 1996 and was active in the House of Lords until 1999 when The House of Lords Act of 1999 revoked the rights of most hereditary peers. That means that technically Curtis is a baroness though she never uses the title.

Curtis is much more outspoken about their relationship than he is. Guest has mentioned in interviews that they like to keep their career separate and their home life private. "I spend a lot of time dropping my children off and picking them up," he said once in a 2004 interview. It's a very regular life."

Building Their Family

It wasn't long after their wedding that Guest and Curtis started their family. After battling with infertility, the couple decided to adopt two children: Annie (born in 1986) and Ruby (born in 1996). Curtis has been very vocal about her experiences with adoption and the importance of family, even writing a children's book about it in 1996 titled Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born.

"I wanted to write a book about real children and real families joined by adoption," she said in an interview. "Adopted children often don't have those kinds of details [about their birth]. Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born was written to let children who joined their families through adoption know that their own birth stories were exciting, too."

It's pretty clear that family is important to Curtis and Guest, who have done an impressive job of staying together since 1984 -- an eternity in Hollywood years. And while they maintain a lower profile than many other star couples, their commitment to each other is something that no one can deny.

 

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in January of 2023. 

 

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