We all love a good story, don’t we? More than that, we all want to have a good love story for ourselves as well. However, a strong married life demands sacrifices and a ton of compromises. The true definition of a happy married life is provided to us by Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney. The two have been married for the past 34 years and they are still going strong. The two tied the knot in 1989. While it was Burke’s first marriage, it was McRaney’s third. It all started when McRaney first met Burke and decided that he wants to spend the rest of his wife with her. However, he was well aware of the competition surrounding the actress.
The biggest advantage they had at the time was that both of them belonged to the entertainment industry. Everything was going smoothly up until 1998. However, it all went downhill when Burke lost her grandmother, and her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after. Matters worsened after Burke had to fight hypoglycemia which resulted in a massive increase in her weight. It was earlier thought to be the Epstein-Barr virus, but the actress knew something was not right with this diagnosis. Throughout her hardships, she could rely on this one person who never left her side – Gerald McRaney. Now, the two spend enough time in maintaining a healthy lifestyle to spend more and more years together. Let’s dive into their not-so-easy relationship that is setting benchmarks for all married couples.
Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney stuck together for 3 decades
Burke says, “He asked me to marry him on the second date, so we were pretty committed!” McRaney says, “I wasn’t going to let her get away. I already had competition. There were people asking her out on dates, and I was going to move in right away.” He says that his friends asked him to reconsider his decision and pull away. He asked, “Why not?” McRaney continues, “They’re the only people who understand this insanity. And she does. If I’m on location, and I don’t call her until 2 o’clock in the morning, no big deal. She knows.”
However, things were not always so light and breezy for Burke. She suffered from type 2 diabetes and depression which resulted in fluctuating weight. In 1993, during the seventh and final season of Designing Women, she was at her heaviest. If it wasn’t for McRaney, she wouldn’t have bounced back. She says, “It didn’t matter to him how fat I got. He reminds me what I should be doing or shouldn’t be eating. He likes to give me my (insulin) shots and says it makes him feel like he’s taking care of me.”
Picture perfect with an Emmy in the background
After McRaney earned his first Emmy for his role in ‘This Is Us’, Burke was all praises for her hardworking husband. She says, “This has been huge for me. I have wanted him to be nominated for so many years, I cannot tell you. I think that he’s richly deserved it, and that they’ve noticed him and acknowledged him this year makes me want to cry.” On the other hand, McRaney could not help but credit his success to his wife.
He says, “As a man, I’ve had the love of the finest woman I can possibly imagine. At the end of a day’s work, I get to come home to her that’s the fun. And we get each other. As nutty as we both are, we get each other. We did a renewal of our vows once, and one of the things that Delta wrote into the vows was that we embrace each other’s insanity. Not just accept it-embrace it.”
