You won’t believe what keeps Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr.’s marriage going strong through all these years

In Hollywood, romances tend to fizzle out faster than box office releases. A two-decade marriage is practically unheard of in this side of California. With packed schedules, nonstop rumors, and the blinding limelight, even power couples crash and burn. We’ve seen it happen to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, and Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise.

Surprisingly, there are also a few Hollywood marriages that last. Take, for example, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr., who have been married for 22 years. The two stars have managed to make it work since tying the knot in September 2002. However, you would be surprised by their secret to a lasting marriage because it does not involve writing love letters, saying words of affirmation, enjoying couple retreats, or having couples therapy.

When the Buffy star appeared on Today With Jenna and Friends, she shared a simple hack that spared them from all the drama other couples go through. According to her, the secret to their over-two-decade union is having separate bathrooms.It’s a hack that’s so simple yet easily overlooked that hosts Jenna Bush Hager and Tiffany Haddish were left stunned upon hearing it.

“That’s it? It’s that simple?” Hager asked, clearly floored by the revelation.

“It’s that simple,” Gellar replied.

Haddish then kept the dialogue going by bringing up her own theory, referencing old-school sitcom logic: “See, I was thinking it was like the [‘I Love Lucy’] thing where [Lucy and Ricky had] twin beds, and then when y’all want to get together, you push them together, and when you want to be apart, you push them apart.”

Gellar then responded, “I had not thought of that,” before admitting she liked the theory. “That is actually a really goodidea.”

How Gellar and Prinze Jr. got together

Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar pic.twitter.com/Qx14crZjbk

— Alicia (@LukeLauraGH) March 28, 2025

Long before the separate bathrooms, the couple’s story began with horror flicks and unexpected dinners. Gellar met Prinze Jr., 49, while filming the 1997 teen slasher hit I Know What You Did Last Summer. They did not portray love interests in the movie, and there was also no instant attraction between them on set. However, they became good friends, and that friendship led to something more romantic. 

“We’d had many dinners before,” Gellar shared in a 2020 People interview. “And we were supposed to go with someone else, and the third person didn’t make it out and we decided to still go.”

That impromptu dinner turned into a love story for the ages. Prinze Jr. knew she was the one almost immediately. “I didn’tgo on dates with other girls, nor did I even want to pursue dates with other girls,” he revealed. The two tied the knot in a picture-perfect Mexican ceremony in 2002. They now share two children — Charlotte, born in 2009, and Rocky, born in 2012.

And while the bathroom tip gets the laughs, Gellar also admits that staying together takes grit. “I think everything takes work in you, whether it’s a friendship or a work relationship or a marriage,” she told Fox News Digital in 2024. “You have to put the work in.”

Marriage is a never-ending challenge, especially in Hollywood, where ego often gets in the way of love. Gellar’s bathroom hack may not be for everyone, but it surely shows us how a little space of privacy can make a marriage last long.