Emmy-winning actressCarrie Preston has been married to her husband Michael Emerson for 27 years, and she has just one word for others who are keen to know how to keep the romance alive after decades together: "Appreciation". The actress is beloved for her work on True Blood and The Good Wife, and now she is winning hearts in the CBS spin-off Elsbeth as the titular quirky but astute attorney who utilizes her unique point of view to help the New York Police Department catch murderers.
"It's a natural thing" she tells HELLO! when asked about the secret to keeping romance alive. "It's not anything that we work at because there's an appreciation that we both have for each other. Michael is, at his core, a good person – conscientious and respectful, those things that you hope people learn when they're in kindergarten! He has all of that completely naturally, and that makes him a good life partner."
"Then I sincerely am happy to see him every day; we've been together for 31 years and married 27, and we've had to spend a lot of time apart because of our work so we do have an appreciation for the time that we are together," she continued. "We have a lot of gratitude, and we understand how to treasure the moments that we do have together."
Carrie and Michael met in 1994 when they were both performing in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. They were starring in a production of Hamlet; Carrie played Ophelia and Michael played Guildenstern. "I had a talent crush on him," she once said of those early days. "Within a month I was calling my mom saying, 'I met the man I’m going to marry.'"
As for Carrie's advice for a long-lasting marriage? "Having your own passions and your own life and not making that person be everything to you. You have to be working on yourself in order to make a partnership work."
The pair had a long-distance romance between New York and Alabama before they settled in NYC after getting married in 1998, and over the years have worked together.
In 2004 they starred together in the comedy film Straight-Jacket and the 2008 feature film, Ready? OK! and Carrie had a recurring role in Person Of Interest as Michael's character Harold Finch's wife.
In 2007, during season three of Lost which starred Michael as Ben Linus, Carrie guest-starred as Ben's mother Emily in flashback scenes. "We have to, because of work, spend a lot of time apart," Carrie told People in 2024. "I think he and I, maybe more than some other couples who are together all the time, really appreciate the time that we do have together."
He now also stars in Elsbeth as Judge Milton Crawford, an adversary of lawyer Elsbeth. "Listen, I don’t see him in my marriage," Carrie told Variety, with Michael joking: "I had to get a part on the show just to see my own wife."