Hilarie Burton reveals the secret to marriage with Jeffrey Dean Morgan

The actors are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary on October 5

Burton and Morgan first started dating in 2009 after being set up on a blind date (Getty Images for Piaget)

Hilarie Burton has opened up about her marriage to Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

In a recent interview with E! News, the One Tree Hill actress explained the secret to her marriage ahead of her fifth wedding anniversary to The Walking Dead actor on October 5. The couple have two children, Augustus,14, and George, 6.

“Obviously communication is a very big deal and also anticipating that your partner is going to go through phases and changes,” Burton said. “We both have gone through different professional phases where maybe we’re super ambitious in one phase of our life and then we’re nesting in another phase of our life. And we try to work in tandem so that we’re each compensating for each other.”

The actress also mentioned her own changes through the years. “I’m certainly not the same person I was at 26,” she added. “Now I’m like a warmer, more aggressive version and he seems to like that.”

Burton also shared their anniversary plans. “I’m going to see him next week to celebrate a little bit early,” the actress continued. “He’s traveling for work, and so I’m going to see him for a whirlwind 24 hours and no one should expect to be in touch with us. It’s kind of great.”

Burton and Morgan dated for 10 years and had two children together before getting married (Getty Images)

The two first met in 2009 when they were introduced by mutual friends Jensen and Danneel Ackles, who set them up on a blind date. They welcomed their first son, Augustus, a year later.

Their daughter George was born in 2018 and the family moved to a farm in Upstate New York called “The Mischief Farm.” The couple didn’t get married until after they had been dating for around 10 years.

Announcing their wedding in an Instagram post at the time Burton wrote: “We’ve lived as husband and wife for a decade. We’ve built a family, and a farm and found our community.”

“For years, publications have reported that we got married in 2014 or 2015 and that I’ve been married and divorced before. All untrue. But WE knew our truth. So it felt silly to try and correct anything.”

Recently another actress revealed the secret of her own marriage. Jamie Lee Curtis spoke to Entertainment Tonight earlier this month about being married to Christopher Guest for nearly 40 years.

“Well, you don’t leave,” Curtis told the outlet. She continued, comparing marriage to an addict’s recovery.

“I’m also sober for a long time. And we have a phrase in recovery: ‘If you stay on the bus, the scenery will change.’ And, you know, that’s marriage. You stay on the bus, the scenery changes,” the Freaky Friday actress explained.

“Like, all of a sudden, you literally wanna hate each other, and then the next day, it’s a pretty, sunny day. And the dog does something cute. And your child does something cute. And you look at each other, and you’re like, ‘Aw, gosh.’ And then you’re on another track.”

She then named specific qualities that she felt were needed in order to have a successful marriage, including: “perseverance, patience, gentleness, and a really good dose of hatred.”

Touching on her inclusion of hatred, Curtis said the idea is to acknowledge you can’t be in love with your partner every second of every day while still choosing to stay together anyway.

“You’re going to hate each other. Not leaving. Not allowing that hatred to then cause you to make some choice that you’re gonna regret. I think that’s really the secret,” she explained.