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Dick Van Dyke and Wife Arlene Silver Have Been Married for More Than a Decade: Get to Know Her
For the majority of his time in the limelight, Dick Van Dyke was married to Margie Willet. However, the pair split in 1984 after 36 years of marriage. Later, in 2012, the actor moved on with his now wife, Arlene Silver.
How Did Arlene Silver and Dick Van Dyke Meet?
The couple first crossed paths at the SAG Awards in 2006 while she was working as a makeup artist. “I remember seeing Dick at the catering table with his bow tie and his big smile,” Arlene recalled in a 2013 interview with HuffPost. “Right when I sat down, he was sitting next to me. He said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ The first thing I asked him was, ‘Weren’t you in Mary Poppins?’”
Although Dick and Arlene became fast friends, their relationship wasn’t initially romantic. “I didn’t really realize how powerful the relationship was becoming. I would come over, but I didn’t want to bother him I guess,” she continued. “He gets so many people around him I didn’t want to be intrusive, so I would just say I’ll come over after work and we’ll have dinner, and it turns out he was looking forward to it the whole day.”
Dick and Arlene remained friends until they began dating “about a year” before tying the knot in 2012.
Has Arlene Silver Been Married Before?
Arlene’s union with Dick is her first marriage. “I haven’t been married before so it’s wonderful,” she gushed. “He’s the perfect human being but he’s also the perfect partner. I went through a lot of frogs to get my prince.”
Who Was Dick Van Dyke’s 1st Wife?
It’s no secret Dick’s love life got a little complicated over the years. In 1976, while he was still married to Margie, he fell for actress Michelle Triola Marvin. “She was feisty, smart and, unlike Margie, knew the showbiz world inside out,” Dick told Closer Weekly in a July 2020 interview.
Eventually, Dick came clean about their affair and he and Margie, who shared kids Christian, Barry, Carrie Beth and Stacey, called it quits. Although Dick and Michelle spoke about marriage, they never got around to putting a “date in the diary,” he explained.
Sadly, in 2009, Michelle died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. “When she asked if she was going to die, I pretended I didn’t know — the hardest acting I have ever done,” the West Plains, Missouri, native admitted.
After Michelle’s passing, Dick said “that’s it” to love, until he met Arlene, that is. “It happened to me just out of the blue.”
In December 2023, Arlene was by her husband’s side as all of Hollywood celebrated his milestone 98th birthday. He has always been grateful for Arlene’s support.
“My wife brings me a cup of coffee in the morning. I get it in bed. I get treated like a king around here,” Dick told People on his special day.
The legendary performer also recalled the first day he met his beloved and decided to ask her out.
“I just went up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ I don’t know how I got the courage,” he shared. “Anyway, we ended up married. She sings like an angel. She dances, and we do a whole act together. We do duets and things. She’s the best partner I ever ran into. What a pleasure it is.”
