Dick Van Dyke Gushes Over Wife Arlene Ahead of His 100th Birthday: ‘We Get Along So Well’

Dick Van Dyke gushed about how he’s thriving thanks to his happy marriage to wife Arlene Silver as the entertainment icon approaches his 100th birthday in December.

“We get along so well,” Dick, 99, told People on Sunday, April 20, about his marriage of 13 years. Arlene, 53, was quick to add, “We just care about each other so much.”

“Everybody said it wouldn’t work,” The Mary Poppins star added about the couple’s 46-year age difference. Arlene quipped, “Yeah. I mean it’s like eerie how well it works. People the same age don’t last.”

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star recalled the first time he spoke to Arlene and how he made a bold move. Dick and Arlene met at the 2006 SAG Awards, where she was working as a makeup artist.

“I never said hello to a strange girl in my life. I was too scared,” Dick told the outlet. “But I was at a show backstage and she walked by, and for some reason, I just jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ There’s something about her and got me, and I was right.”

When Arlene told the publication, “He’s made me feel like I can do anything,” Dick jumped in to sweetly add, “And you can.”

The couple made the comments at the Dick & Arlene Van Dyke Present Vandy Camp event. It was held at the Aviator Nation Dreamland in Malibu, California, with all funds benefiting the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation Community Brigade.

After meeting in 2006, Dick and Arlene were friends for about five years before they began dating. The couple tied the knot in 2012, and it was Arlene’s first marriage.

“I haven’t been married before so it’s wonderful,” she gushed to the Huffington Post in 2013. “He’s the perfect human being but he’s also the perfect partner. I went through a lot of frogs to get my prince.”

The Night at the Museum star’s love life was a little more complicated.

Dick married his first wife, Margie Willett, in 1948. The duo went on to have four children: Christian, 74, Barry, 73, Stacy, 69, and Carrie Beth, 63.

In 1976, while he was still married to Margie, Dick fell for actress Michelle Triola Marvin. “She was feisty, smart and, unlike Margie, knew the showbiz world inside out,” Dick told Closer in a July 2020 interview.

Dick and Margie officially divorced in 1984 after 36 years of marriage. He was with Michelle for 35 years until her death in 2009, although the duo never married.

The Dick Van Dyke Show alum’s marriage to Arlene has made the star so happy in his later years.

“They enjoy their social time, doing good works for the community and hitting the local gym for regular workouts, but they’re also total homebodies who love chilling out and cooking fabulous meals,” an insider exclusively told Closer in July 2024, adding that they “love watching TV and staying up a little later than he should.”

As he approaches 100, the insider said Dick was making the most of his blissful life with Arlene.

“Dick’s well aware he’s only got a handful of summers left and intends to enjoy every minute of it,” said the source. “He couldn’t be happier and thinks of himself as the luckiest guy in the world for having met Arlene when he did.