For Terry Crews and Rebecca King, the secret to marriage is “freedom” and “choice.”
The Brooklyn 99 actor, 51, opened up about his 30-year relationship with the gospel singer, 53, and how his definition of love has changed since he was younger.
“What I say a lot of times is: You can’t love someone and control them at the same time,” Crews told Us Weekly at an America’s Got Talent live show at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 20.
He continued, “As a man, especially being young, you feel like you need to control everything and that’s not love. You know? Love is freedom. Love is a choice.”
Despite their busy schedules, Crews said that he and his wife make the conscious effort to prioritize their relationship and find time for each other.
“If my wife had to come home because she had to, is that love? Or did she come home because she wanted to? See, that’s the difference,” he said. “You know, we really opened up that way and made sure our marriage was all about freedom and that we choose to be together, not we have to be together, you know what I mean? You show up. Make the choice. It’s a choice.”
The White Chicks star and motivational speaker, who celebrated their 30th anniversary last month, married on July 29, 1990. The couple share five kids together: daughters Azriel, 29, Tera, 20, Wynfrey, 15, and son Isaiah, 12. The pair also have daughter Naomi, 29, whom Crews has adopted, from King’s previous relationship with Charles Burton.
In May, Crews told Us about what it was like to parent five children.
“You know what the key is? A midday nap,” he said at the time. “I have a whole technique.”
The America’s Got Talent judge continued, “I have the eye patches, the noise-canceling headphones. I can take a nap anywhere, I am a nap pro. I’ll take it in a car, in the lobby, in the airport.”
Despite the exhaustion of a big family, King told Us in March 2016 that she and the former NFL star have thought of expanding their brood even more by adopting another child.
“[Adoption is] something we discussed back when we were first married,” she said at the time. “It was something that I always felt kind of called to do. I would see ads in magazines, and I would just stare at them like, ‘I’m going to do that one day.’”
With reporting by Taylor Ferber
