Source: Greg Doherty / Getty
Israel and Adrienne Houghton have only been married for a year and a half, but if you watch the pair, it feels like they’ve known and loved each other forever. You definitely get that vibe when you watch them talk about their love story, which they shared recently for her YouTube show, All Things Adrienne. The couple talked about how they met (while working on the film I’m In Love With a Church Girl), how they stayed in touch, and knew early on that they had a special bond and friendship.
“We would see each other from time to time at different functions, that sort of thing. I don’t know how to put this, but you just know when someone’s going to be in your life forever,” he said. “You don’t know in what capacity, but you just know, ‘I like hanging out with them. I like talking to them.’”
Soon after they started dating in February of 2016, Israel said he knew he’d found true love. The realization came to him when she chose to continue seeing him despite the drama and criticismthat came with his life after his divorce to Meleasa Houghton, with whom he was married for more than 21 years. He gave her an out to avoid all of it, but she wasn’t going anywhere.
“I knew she was the one, really kind of on our first real date,” he said. “Our first real getaway together. It started a bit crazy and it had a lot of chaos connected to it with paparazzi and what not. I had recently announced that I’d been divorced, even though I’d been divorced for quite a while. So everybody was kind of speculating, saying different things and saying crazy things about her. At which point I just said, ‘Hey, listen. I’m happy to take one for the team. This is new, you can simply say, I didn’t know it was all that.’ And she said, ‘I was your friend before this happened. I’m your friend now, and let’s just power through it.’ That moment I knew, this is everything, and she is everything to me. Eight months later we were married.
So how do the couple make it work? By having fun with one another at all times.
“We literally will just sit in the corner and have our own — we’re in our own little world,” Adrienne said. “We just die laughing.”
Israel agreed, saying that even though marriage is always going to be work, when you really like, not just love the one you’re with, the work feels much easier and worth it.
“I believe it is just as important to like the person as to love them.” he said. “We all know people who were in relationships, and sure you love the person you’re with. But if you guys do not get along, if you don’t like each other, you’re going to have a difficult time making it work. We do not have a difficult time making it work. We genuinely like being around each other, so much so that we feel separation anxiety when she has to be working somewhere and I’m working out of the country.”
“If I have a choice, I prefer you,” she said of wanting to be with her husband over other people and business priorities. “I want to be with you.” To which he responded sweetly, “Likewise.”
Check out their lovely chat about their love story below:
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