Gavin & Stacey actress Joanna Page has shared some revealing insights into her marriage.
The 46-year-old has been married to fellow actor James Thornton, 50, since December 2003 after first meeting in 2009. The couple share four children, Eva, 13, Kit, 10, Noah, nine, and four-year-old Boe.
Joanna has been been refreshingly honest about the challenges of committing to be with the same partner for life, admitting that it can feel "boring" and "rubbish" at times.
However, she insists on working at her nuptials and refuses to "give up at the first sign of hard work."
During an interview with the Daily Mail, Joanna says, "If you're going through 26 years of marriage like me, it's not always going to be wonderful, it's going to be pretty rubbish, and sometimes, you end up hating each other."
She also suggests it's easy to get tire of your partner and says it's a given that they will annoy you at times. "You get bored of each other, we do disagree with each other, we have massive arguments," she reveals.
The couple's marriage was particularly challenged by Joanna co-sleeping with Boe for four years, and the difficulty of "getting back into the martial bed."
However, this these hard periods of their relationship are offset by the times Joanna says are "suddenly wonderful again."
The actress feels that some people give up at the first sign of their marriage looking a little rocky, saying, "You can't be with someone for 26 years and it be wonderful all the time. These days, people say, 'It's not working, let's just split up.'"
"Be prepared, you have to work at marriage, don't give up at the first sign of hard work," she shares.
While not sleeping in the same bed presented challenges, the chaos that comes with caring for four children also takes an inevitable toll on the couple.
"We are like ships passing in the night sometimes because there's so much going on with the children that we don't have time to sit down and talk to each other," Joanna reveals.
However, she believes part of their secret to staying together is rooted in "kindness and humour" they make sure to keep flowing, even through the darker times.
Also, making the time to talk to each other between the carnage of raising children has been useful for Joanna and James, and appearing together of Joanna's new podcast, Lush! forced that much-needed time alone.
The podcast offers an unfiltered look into Joanna's life, and while James was initially "reluctant" to become occasional co-host for the series, the couple are glad that he agreed to take part.
Likening chatting to one another on the podcast as "couple's therapy," Joanna reveals, "We know everything about each other, but it's quite liberating talking about those things and delving into those things [on the podcast]."
"There are loads of different things that have happened to us over the years but sitting in a room and talking about our opinions, and asking our listeners - we have had a whole debate about the heating," she says.
Speaking about the effect on her husband of having much-needed time to talk, Joanna reveals, "We talked and talked and talked and when it finished, he was like a new man, he was buzzing, and full of life and we really connected."
