Samuel L Jackson shares the secret to his 41-year marriage with wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson

The couple have been married since 1980

(AFP via Getty Images)

Samuel L Jackson is thanking his wife for helping him become the man he was meant to be. The movie star and his wife, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, reflected on their family and relationship amid celebrating 41 years of marriage.

In an interview with PEOPLE published on Wednesday, the couple agreed that the secret to their long-lasting marriage was making a commitment to stay together. “In the beginning, we always said the most revolutionary thing that Black people could do was stay together, raise their children with the nucleus of having a father and a mother, since everybody likes to pretend that that’s not the dynamic of the African American family. That it’s just children out here being raised by women, which we know is false,” LaTanya Jackson said.

“In order to change that narrative, we made a decision to say, ‘We are going to stay together no matter what. We’ll figure it out,’” she said.

The couple, who met while in college, have been married since 1980 and are the proud parents of their 39-year-old daughter, Zoe. However, it has not always been easy for the pair. Jackson, 73, became addicted to drugs early on in their marriage, but it was LaTanya that helped him get into rehab. After more than 30 years of recovery, Jackson can admit that he was unable to be there emotionally for his family during that time. “I had basically moved into the basement of our brownstone," he said. “I was like the troll in the basement, and every now and then I’d come upstairs and hover around to do something. I was addicted and being crazy.”

The Broadway actor, 72, felt that she had a calling from God to help Jackson through his addiction, and that leaving was not an option. “She didn’t have to try to fix me," Jackson said about his wife. “She could’ve just said, ‘Get out,’ and left me into the world, let me go and be whatever I was going to be.”

The actor — who has portrayed numerous iconic roles including in Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles, and the Star Wars franchise — thanked his wife for giving him “the chance to be the man I was supposed to be.”

As the couple enter their fifth decade of marriage, they remain as busy as ever, LaTanya said. The secret to a successful marriage? “It’s two people who respect each other, love each other and look out for each other,” Samuel L Jackson said.