Blake Edwards Was the Love of Julie Andrews’ Life — Inside Their 41-Year Marriage

Iconic actress Julie Andrews will never forget the day she met her second husband, Blake Edwards, outside their analyst’s office. “I was going one way and he was going the other, he rolled down the window after smiling a couple of times and he said, ‘Are you going where I just came from?’” she previously recalled to Good Morning Britain.

Even though Blake was 13 years older than her, Julie still fell madly in love with the Pink Panther director. In 1969 they tied the knot and went on to welcome their two kids — daughters Amy, 45, and Joanna, 44 — into the world. “Success in our marriage was to take it one day at a time,” Julie, 83, remembered.

However, The Sound of Music star — who’s also a proud mom to daughter Emma, 56, from a previous relationship — said they encountered their fair share of marital problems when Blake suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome. “Blake wasn’t easy, but Julie was very patient with him,” her colleague Kenny Solms exclusively told Closer Weekly in the magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands now. “She used to call him Blakey.”

Julie and Blake stayed married for 41 years until he died from pneumonia in 2010 at the age of 88. “There are days when it suddenly socks you in the middle of your gut and you think, ‘God, I wish he were here,’” she said. “But he is in a way. I think one carries that love always.”

Now, Julie is starting to take her career in a different direction. Instead of focusing on her singing and dancing abilities, she has been writing a lot more often. “I’m beginning to direct, which I love doing,” she told Closer. “I’ve also got other books that I’m contracted to write.”

As her career keeps progressing, Julie will never forget the ones who helped her get to where she is today. “[Life] passes extremely quickly,” she previously told Elle. “It’s gone in a flash, so you have to embrace as much as you can of it while it’s still there.”

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