The Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke is less than a month away from celebrating his 100th birthday. In a new interview, he’s crediting his 54 year-old wife Arlene Silver with keeping him young and helping him reach this landmark birthday.
Van Dyke’s Love For His Wife
Van Dyke’s new book 100 Rules for Living to 100 hits stores today. In it, Van Dyke shares tips to how to live a long life while also reflecting on what he’s learned along the way.
The book features many stores from Van Dyke’s time working in Hollywood. Indeed, it includes an anecdotes from his legendary sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show as well as from hit movies of his like Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Van Dyke also takes time in the book to praise Silver, who he married in 2012.
“Arlene is half my age, and she makes me feel somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters my age, which is still saying a lot,” Van Dyke wrote of Silver in an excerpt obtained by Fox News. “Every day she finds a new way to keep me up and moving, bright and hopeful and needed.”
Van Dyke’s History With Silver
Van Dyke and Silver met at the Screen Actors Guild Awards back in 2006. At the time, Silver was working at the event as a makeup artist.
Van Dyke wrote that he “felt drawn” to Silver immediately. This led to him introducing himself even though he “had never approached a strange woman before.”
After the event, Van Dyke sent Silver an email that read, “Arlene, I’m afraid I was so smitten with you last night I couldn’t think of anything to say. Still, when the project at Hallmark starts, I’d like to give you a chance to talk with them. Would that be OK?”
Their relationship remained platonic until 2009. That year, Van Dyke lost both his ex-wife Margie Willett, who was the mother of his four children, and his longtime partner Michelle Triola. Silver stepped in to help Van Dyke with his grief, and their relationship soon turned romantic.
From there, Van Dyke wrote that Silver “quickly became my soulmate and love of my life.” He firmly believes that their “ongoing romance” is “the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch.”
Check out Van Dyke and Silver performing together a few years ago in the video below.
Van Dyke And Silver Overcome Age Gap
As for their 48 year age gap, Van Dyke told Silver that he never thought about it. Instead, he wrote that he “just figured” that she’d “keep me feeling young forever.”
While Silver initially had some concerns, she ended up embracing the adage that age is just a number after attending Burning Man one year.
“When I focused on what our life was, right then, I realized: this is the happiest I have ever been, hands down,” Silver is quoted as saying in the book. “When you love somebody the way we love each other, age is just the last thing that matters.”
These days, Van Dyke and Silver are happier than ever. Van Dyke even still performs from time to time, something that Silver helps him to do.
“Arlene is my partner in love, life, and logistics. She has two phones and is often on both, scheduling and juggling more gigs and get-togethers than you could possibly imagine,” Van Dyke wrote. “Arlene knows how much performing and being social nourishes my spirit and brings me alive. I would absolutely be origami guy if she didn’t have me singing and dancing.”
Van Dyke is set to turn 100 on December 13, and Silver will undoubtedly be right by his side to celebrate his big day. We’d like to wish Dick Van Dyke a very happy birthday, and many more to come!