Growing up in show business, Alexa Penavega knew that sustaining a happy marriage with her husband, Carlos Penavega, was going to take a lot of work.
The “Spy Kids” alum and “Big Time Rush” star have been married for eight years and they’ve laid down some ground rules on how to keep their family first.
“We don’t take projects at the same time,” Penavega revealed. “If they conflict by two weeks that’s fine, but anything more than that we don’t split up our family because the industry was not set up for families or marriage.”
“What we’ve said is ‘we’ve seen too many people break apart. We’ve seen too many families fall apart,'” she explained. “I’m currently on tour with three kids on a tour bus for two months with Carlos as he tours America and Mexico with Big Time Rush.”
The couple also decided to raise their children outside of the bright lights of Hollywood. When they’re not on location, the family spends time at their home on Maui where they can really disconnect from work and the little ones have a place to run around freely.
“There’s always going to be busyness, so for us we want to really unplug, and Hawaii was that place for us,” Penavega said.
The Penavegas have taken their lessons on marriage and penned a memoir. The idea for the book came after they competed against each other on “Dancing With The Stars.”
“We were the first married couple to ever compete against each other. You know, they like to kind of start that drama but for us, we just were rooting for each other to win. We were not competitive with each other at all and it really kind of shined a light on marriage,” she explained. “We got so many messages saying ‘thank you for showing a happy marriage, a joyful marriage.'”
While writing the book, the couple had to dig into their past, which the “Sleepover” star called “therapeutic.” They also learned some things about themselves in the process.
“I was praying right before I went on this interview, not this one but another one, and I was like ‘thank you for getting us to Hawaii, God and we moved for Carlos,'” she said. “I just got this revelation, ‘oh, we didn’t move for Carlos. We actually moved for your heart because you needed to get out of the industry and have a heart reset.'”
The memoir “What if Love is the Point?” is out now everywhere where books are sold.