From costars to parents, here’s a look at how Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have made it work for over thirty years

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Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are the epitome of a modern A-list couple.

After meeting on the set of PBS’ Lemon Sky, Bacon and Sedgwick got married in 1988 and now share two children. When asked whether the couple gets tired of people asking them for relationship advice, Sedgwick told PEOPLE in 2020, “We do. I joke that the secret to a successful marriage is to not take marriage advice from celebrities. I guess if I had to think too much about [our marriage], that would probably not be a good thing. We just got lucky. I honestly believe that’s truth.”

 Kevin Bacon Shares His ‘First Selfie’ with Wife Kyra Sedgwick: ‘In the Old Days’

Jokes and luck aside, she shared one lesson: “That thing people do, ‘If only I had this, if only I had that … ‘ There has to be some piece of wholeness that is within yourself before you can let somebody love you the way that you need to be loved.”

Here’s the complete journey of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s relationship.

1978: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick first cross paths

While getting lunch between performances of his off-Broadway play Getting Out, Bacon was approached by a young fan and her older brother — which turned out to be twelve-year-old Sedgwick. Although Bacon doesn’t remember the interaction, it was the first time he met his now-wife.

1987: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick fall in love while filming Lemon Sky

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Bacon and Sedgwick formally met on the set of 1988’s Lemon Sky. As Sedgwick later recalled on Conan, Bacon organized (and paid for) group dinners for the entire cast, hoping she would come along. When she didn’t, he recommended that she get a massage at his hotel.

Sedgwick explained that Bacon told her that the hotel’s gym was next to the massage room, and if he wrapped up his workout around when her massage ended, they should grab dinner after.

“And I’m thinking, ‘Yeah sure, that’s not going to happen. I’m not going to tell him when my massage is,’ ” she recalled. Much to her surprise, however, Bacon was waiting for her at the gym when her appointment finished.

“Years later, he told me he had actually called downstairs and I was getting massaged, which is kind of creepy, but whatever,” she joked.

Their connection was immediate, but for Sedgwick, who was in her early 20s at the time, it was overwhelming. “When I did fall in love with Kevin, it really just felt like there was some urgency to get married, and I don’t know what it was. Suddenly this thing came over me and I was terrified,” she told Vulture in 2019. Still, she had no doubts. “He was just the one, you know? He was just the soul mate, he was just the one.”

April 27, 1987: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick step out in New York City

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In one of their first public appearances as a couple, Sedgwick and Bacon attended the “Illuminations: An AIDS Benefit” Revue for the Northern Lights Alternatives, an organization that helped children with AIDS, at the Limelight in New York City.

December 24, 1987: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick get engaged

That same year, Bacon got down on one knee and asked Sedgwick to marry him on Christmas Eve. “She was so touched, cried, said I do,” Bacon told Kelly Clarkson of the moment he proposed during a 2021 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Three months after the proposal, Sedgwick admitted to Bacon that she didn’t like the engagement ring. “We’re lying in bed and she wakes up in the middle of the night, and she’s crying, and she’s crying, and she can’t even say what’s going on,” revealed Bacon. “Finally, she goes, ‘I don’t like the ring!’ ” He told her it was fine, and they exchanged it for the one she still has today.

September 4, 1988: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick marry

The couple tied the knot on Sept. 4, 1988. Bacon donned a checkered suit and Sedgwick wore a high-necked lace gown with her hair in a soft updo.

June 23, 1989: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick welcome son Travis

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The couple welcomed their first child, Travis, on June 23, 1989, in Los Angeles.

Sedgwick later revealed that their decision to start a family was made on an impulse during their honeymoon. “We were like, ‘Let’s just not use birth control,’ ” she recalled to More magazine in 2010. “I didn’t think it was going to happen so fast. I got pregnant in two weeks.”

December 1991: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick costar in Pyrates

The pair costarred in Pyrates, a straight-to-VHS romantic comedy about a couple who cause literal fires whenever they make love.

March 15, 1992: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick welcome daughter Sosie Ruth

In March 1992, Bacon and Sedgwick welcomed their second child, daughter Sosie Ruth.

January 1995: Kyra Sedgwick appears alongside Kevin Bacon in Murder in the First

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Based on a true story, the film stars Bacon as a young man imprisoned on Alcatraz and features Sedgwick in a small role. Sedgwick later told PEOPLE that the movie was Bacon’s “most memorable,” before adding “although I don’t know that I’d let our kids watch it.”

January 19, 1997: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick attend the Golden Globes

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Bacon and Sedgwick walked the red carpet together at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards. Sedgwick later called her ensemble for the event her least favorite fashion moment. “There’s a great picture of Kevin and me at the Golden Globes,” she told PEOPLE. “I had on this turquoise blue suit and he wore a crushed-velvet suit. We just kind of went wrong. I know that I made the worst dressed [list] that evening. I know it. And I think Kevin did too.”

May 2004: Kevin Bacon appears alongside Kyra Sedgwick in Cavedweller

In the drama directed by Lisa Cholodenko, Sedgwick played a traumatized musician whose second husband (Bacon) dies, forcing her to move back to her hometown and confront her abusive ex-husband (played by Aidan Quinn).

That same year, the couple also costarred in The Woodsman, where Bacon played a child molester trying to reform himself after over a decade in prison. Sedgwick took on the role of his girlfriend who is struggling to understand him.

June 2006: Kyra Sedgwick and family star in Loverboy, directed by Kevin Bacon

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Loverboy marked Bacon’s major motion picture directorial debut. He also stepped in front of the camera and cast his family in the film as well — Sedgwick played the lead role, while the couple’s daughter Sosie played the younger version of Sedgwick’s character and their son Travis held a small part.

2006-2009: Kevin Bacon directs Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer

Sedgwick starred in the hit show The Closer for seven seasons, and Bacon directed four episodes over the course of the series. The actor discussed directing his wife during an interview with TV Guide in 2008, and said that Sedgwick rarely requires notes.

“The thing about Kyra is she knows this character so well, she’s so well-prepared and has made pretty strong decisions about how she’s going to play something, and rarely, honestly do I step in and say, ‘That’s just not right.’ Mostly, I’m just the monkey who says ‘action’ and ‘cut,’ ” he said.

December 11, 2008: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s money manager is arrested for running a Ponzi scheme

Bacon and Sedgwick were among the handful of celebrities to lose significant amounts in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, though the couple never met him personally.

“We found out when the world found out,” Sedgwick revealed. “We had both been working professionally — Kev since he was seventeen and me since I was fifteen — and it was our savings, all the money we had. My sister called me because she was invested in it too — our stepfather had suggested it — and she said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ It was all over the news, about five o’clock on a winter day, just before Christmas. It was a hard day.”

“We were both in shock at first,” she added. “But then you do a really quick body scan to get some perspective — you have to; otherwise, you just freak out: our children were safe, we were still working, we could make the money back … So, yeah, it felt awful and scary for a long time, But we knew we were going to get through it. And so many people had it so much worse — people who were old and no longer employable. I remember Kevin saying, ‘Look, we’re artists and we’re not money people. We got screwed. I don’t fault us tremendously for not being money people.’ ”

January 29, 2012: Kyra Sedgwick shows off her tattoo designed by Kevin Bacon

On the red carpet for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Sedgwick displayed some new ink: a design incorporating all the family’s initials. She later revealed that after she drunkenly suggested matching tattoos, Bacon came up with the design. Later, both actors and their two children went under the needle.

March 2013: Kyra Sedgwick reveals her sex life with Kevin Bacon is still going strong

In an interview with Redbook, the star said it’s “not a lot of effort” to work up desire for her husband. “When he walks into a room, I’m still … I mean, my heart gets a little fluttery and I think, Oh! He’s so cute. He’s so hot. That’s literally the first thing I think. You can ask people on the set — it’s palpable. He’s still a mystery to me.”

January 12, 2014: Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon’s daughter Sosie Bacon is Miss Golden Globe

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The proud parents watched as their daughter made her Hollywood debut as Miss Golden Globe, now known as the Golden Globe Ambassador, at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.

“I hadn’t really imagined the amount of press and pressure and interviews and doing this kind of stuff that she would be asked to do,” Bacon said after the event. “She just handled it great. It was like she’d been doing it her whole life. It blew our minds. We were sort of like, ‘Wow, how does she know how to do this?’ ”

While older brother Travis is a musician, Sosie followed her parents into acting, later landing a breakout role on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why.

“As an actor, there is so much rejection,” Sedgwick told Good Housekeeping about how she initially feared her daughter following her career path. “Kevin and I have had some painful experiences, and you don’t want your kid to go through that. But I want [Sosie] to follow her passion, and acting has become her passion.”

April 2018: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick play themselves in mockumentary

Bacon and Sedgwick play themselves in the Funny or Die video A Duck Walks In On A Couple Having Sex. Bacon also directed the mockumentary, which follows the pair as they film a movie about a duck who walks in on a couple having sex.

September 4, 2018: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick celebrate 30 years of marriage with a sweet duet

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“30 years with this amazing woman. She is the music in my life,” Bacon captioned a video of the pair singing the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody.”

April 2021: Kevin Bacon reveals his and Kyra Sedgwick’s quarantine routine

During an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Bacon said that quarantining together at home revealed the couple’s need for alone time.

“My wife and I realized that we’ve been married for a really long time, and quarantine really was an amazing, kind of, test for our marriage because I mean, we were really isolated,” he said. “I think after a while we realized that we would kind of have to, even in our place, go away from each other.”

The actor also walked through the couple’s isolation routine, which involved Sedgwick spending time in her “lair” — their bedroom — before meeting up with Bacon for shared meals.

February 28, 2021: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick present together at the Golden Globes

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The Golden Globe-winning pair walked out hand-in-hand before presenting the award for best performance by an actress in a television series – drama to Emma Corrin for their work on The Crown.

September 19, 2021: Kevin Bacon washes Kyra Sedgwick’s “I Heart KB” thong

“Sometimes doing laundry can be fun and full of surprises,” Bacon wrote, sharing a photo of a lacy thong on top of his washing machine. Rhinestones on the thong spell out “I ❤️ KB.”

“Thanks for airing my dirty laundry😉❤️,” replied Sedgwick.

June 28, 2022: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick try the Footloose TikTok trend

In June 2022, the couple paid homage to Bacon’s iconic film by joining in on the viral “Footloose Drop” TikTok trend. In a video posted on Bacon’s Instagram and set to the film’s title track, Bacon picks his wife up and then twirls her in his arms before catching her again.

He wrote in the caption, “I don’t remember this being part of the original #Footloose choreography 🤣 but figured we’d give it a spin.” The pair were all smiles as they danced around in their home.

July 24, 2022: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick attend They/Them premiere in Los Angeles

Bacon and Sedgwick walked the They/Them red carpet at the 2022 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

In the horror film, Bacon plays Owen Whistler — the proprietor of Camp Whistler, an LGBTQ conversion camp where the counselors start turning up dead. The actor discussed the film’s title with PEOPLE, admitting that preferred gender pronouns posed a challenge for him at first.

“That’s the reaction a lot of, certainly older people have. When you think about it, is it really that much of a hardship?” he said. “There’s other things that are hard to do in life. But respecting something or not using language that’s going to make somebody feel uncomfortable or hanging a flag that’s going to make someone have a traumatic memory, is it that much of a hardship to adjust your way of thinking? I don’t think so.”

October 10, 2022: Kevin Bacon talks about how he and Kyra Sedgwick recovered after losing their money in Madoff scheme

On an episode of the Smartless podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, Bacon revealed that he and Sedgewick “had most of our money in Madoff.”

He told the trio that they had a “portion” of their losses returned, but not all. “Certainly, you get angry and stuff, but I have to say, there were a lot of people who were much worse off than we were — old people, people whose retirement funds were completely decimated,” Bacon said.

After losing their money, the actor said he and Sedgwick focused on their family. “When something like that happens, you look at each other and you go, ‘Well, that sucks, and let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work,’ ” he explained.

“We’ve made it this far, our kids are healthy, we’re healthy, you know? Let’s look at what we have that’s good. We can still both work,” Bacon said, “I think people will be not happy to hear me whining about money.”

November 1, 2022: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick attend the Chapin Awards in New York City

In 2007, Bacon founded SixDegrees — a nonprofit dedicated to supporting other nonprofits and causes around the world.

His collaboration with WhyHunger, a nonprofit whose mission is to end hunger and poverty, led the Footloose actor to receive the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award at the 2022 Chapin Awards in N.Y.C.

“WhyHunger believes #HungerIsSolvable when we work together. SixDegrees believes no different. Unity & compassion can go a long way to create a huge impact,” Bacon captioned a photo of him and Sedgwick at the event.

December 31, 2022: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick celebrate New Year’s Eve together

Bacon and Sedgwick jointly posted a video of them singing Paul McCartney’s “Every Night” as the Footloose alum played the guitar.

“Tonight I just want to stay in and be with you @kyrasedgwickofficial and @paulmccartney,” Bacon wrote in the caption. “Happy #NewYearsEve everyone!”

February 8, 2023: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick cover Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”

Bacon posted a video of him and Sedgwick performing their own rendition of Miley Cyrus’ song, “Flowers.”

While Bacon has been known to cover popular songs, those videos famously feature the actor performing with goats. As a nod to those clips, Sedgwick held a small plastic goat toy, which bleated along to the song.

“We’re not with the goats, but we thought we’d try a goat song anyway,” she said in the video.

March 12, 2023: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick attend the Vanity Fair Oscars party

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Bacon and Sedgwick attended the star-studded soiree in coordinating all-black ensembles. The Closer alum wowed in an Alexandre Vauthier tuxedo-inspired dress that she paired with thigh-high boots, while Bacon looked handsome in a suit and tie.

“What a fun #Oscars95 weekend. Congrats to all the winners last night!” the Footloose star wrote on Instagram. “Not pictured: our intense game of Uno with Queen Latifah, Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen. Let’s all do it again sometime.”

March 29, 2023: Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon share their secrets to a successful 35-year marriage

While talking to PEOPLE, Sedgwick and Bacon shared why they think their marriage has lasted for more than three decades.

“We’ve always been each other’s biggest [supporters] and fans,” The Closer alum said, adding that having “a sense of humor is crucial” in their relationship.

As for Bacon, he feels it’s important to spend uninterrupted, one-on-one time together.

“To me, walking down the street together just shooting the s— in the middle of the night still feels like a nice place to be,” he said.

June 29, 2023: Kyra Sedgwick talks about Kevin Bacon’s high school style

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During a red carpet event for The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2, Sedgwick revealed what she would have thought of her husband if they had met in high school.

“I would’ve been like, ‘God, he’s so freaking hot!’ ” the actress told PEOPLE, miming her heart beating out her chest. “That’s what I would have been like.”

September 4, 2023: Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary

Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon on the set of “Lemon Sky” in 1987. KYRA SEDGWICK INSTAGRAM
Bacon and Sedgwick marked 35 years of marriage with sweet Instagram posts. Sedgwick shared a throwback photo, featuring the young couple looking at the camera. “It was 1987- on the set of ‘Lemon Sky’ – I met a man named Kevin,” she wrote in the caption. “Happy 35 my love.”

Meanwhile, Bacon posted a throwback photo of Sedgwick smiling as she sat in Bacon’s lap. “35 years feels like a heartbeat,” he captioned the snap.