Judge Judy, whose real name is Judy Sheindlin, recently shared some words of wisdom in a new interview about her secret to a long-lasting marriage. "You don't spend 24 hours together because that's deadly," she told E! News. "Jerry just celebrated his 90th birthday, and I still like to look at him when he walks in the room. That's a key." Judy has been married to her husband Jerry Sheindlin for 47 years. The pair tied the knot in 1977 with it being the second marriage for both of them. They share five children together: Gregory, Jamie, Jonathan, Adam and Nicole, as well as 13 grandchildren.

In 2020, Judy told Fox News the reason for her split from her first husband was because "he always viewed my job as a hobby. And there came a time where I resented that." She noted that her father was unhappy at first, but "eventually he came around. He saw how unhappy I was. And it was the right thing because I moved to the city. Within a relatively short time, I met Jerry Sheindlin. So, it was a frightening time but a fun time." Judy met Jerry, a defense attorney, at a bar. "I just finished trying a murder case as a defense lawyer," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. "There was a reporter from the New York Post there at the bar, and I was speaking to him about the case. Judy came walking in and put her finger in my face and said, 'And who is this?' I said, 'Lady, get your finger out of my face.' We've been together ever since." In Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue’s book, "What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life," Judy revealed that Jerry had been hesitant about a remarrying. "I actually had to drag him to the altar. ... He had no intention of divorcing his wife, even though they had been separated for three or four years. After we were together for about a year, I said, 'I want to see your divorce in the newspaper or don't bother calling again,'" she recalled. "I said, 'I'm not going to do that,'" Jerry added. "So, she whipped out a calendar and said, 'Pick a date. Now.'"

The pair had their first big issue in their marriage after 13 years of marriage when Judy's father passed away. As Judy struggled with the grieving process, she didn't feel supported by Jerry. "I said, 'I've been taking care of you for 12 years, now it's your turn to take care of me.' And he was totally unaccustomed to that role," she said in "What Makes a Marriage Last," per E! News. "I wasn't asking for anything unreasonable, and he wasn't being unreasonable saying that he really didn't know how to do that. He was 55 and had lived a certain way all his life. He couldn't even conceptualize taking over that role. He just couldn't." Judy issued an ultimatum. "She said to me, 'If you can't maneuver this, I'm going to divorce you,'" Jerry recalled. "And I said, 'Oh, yeah? I dare you.' And the next day I got divorce papers. The next day. So, that was the end of that." The pair divorced, but it only lasted a year before they got back together. "I missed her presence the very first week that we were separated," Jerry said. "It was the first time in years that we didn't get to see each other every single day. It was such a strange experience." Jerry recalled they were walking together in Manhattan after leaving family court, and he said to her, "'This is silly. I'm uncomfortable being with you all the time and not being married to you. Let's get married again.' She said, 'Well, how are we going to do that?' I said, 'The clerk's office is right up the street. We can go in and get a license.'" The pair remarried in 1991 and have stayed strong ever since.