Marlo Thomas was quite content to live as a single woman and against marriage when she met and fell in love with Phil Donahue. The couple has been together for almost five decades and has faced difficult trials that enhanced their relationship.
In Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue’s book, “What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets,” the couple opened up about their marriage. Thomas revealed in the memoir that as a young girl, she wanted nothing to do with the institution of marriage.
The reason was that she didn’t see marriage as having enough room to accommodate her. She was so against it that she always had a cheeky response when the discussion came up.
Thomas would say things like marriage was the same as living with your jailer and having to please them. The other retort she made against the institution was equally harsh, with her stating:
“Marriage is like a vacuum cleaner: you stick it to your ear, and it sucks out all your energy and ambition.”
YIELDING TO MARRIAGE AND FACING OBSTACLES
According to their book, Donahue met Thomas once before, and the second time they met was in 1977 in Chicago. When the meeting happened, the television show host was single and raising four boys alone.