Gerald McRaney is spilling the beans on what initially drew him to Delta Burke four decades ago and everything that kept them together ever since.
“Marrying Delta, that’s the secret,” the actor, 77, began about the 36-year-long successful marriage.
“That’s it. She’s the one for keeping it together. Honestly, I think one of the biggest components to a happy marriage is that you’ve got to marry the right person,” McRaney told People Magazine.
The Paradise ator added that he was first drawn to Burke in the mid ’80s when they met at a publicist’s awards luncheon. “I was fascinated by her,” he recalled.
The pair later reconnected when McRaney was cast in a guest role on Burke’s show Designing Women, and very soon began dating.
“I think a lot of it was just both of us being southern,” the Mississippi-native said of what initially drew him to Burke, who is from Florida. “We had common ground there.”
He continued, “Also, I thought she was the most drop-dead beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
McRaney recalled how he just didn’t risk wasting any more time after they went on their first date.
“I actually asked her out while we were doing the show, but I waited until after the show was over to have the date. So we had a date and we had a second date, at which point I proposed to her. And she accepted. And basically, we’ve been together every day for 38 years.”
“We just knew,” he added of moving fast in the dating stage.
McRaney also revealed another key ingredient in the success of his third marriage.
“The other thing is, and Delta and I have talked about this, there’s something about being with the right person that makes you know that when you have a disagreement, that it is worth fighting for.”
“You may fight with the person, but you fight to keep the relationship going more than you fight with the person. That’s the important thing. There is some work involved, but most of it has been an absolute joy.”
He added with a laugh, “I think both of us realise that we would be pretty well useless without the other.”
Burke also recently got candid about their unconditional love in a Glamorous Trash podcast that aired in 2024.
“No one had ever loved me completely for me, not even my mother or grandmother. They would judge what I looked like. He never did,” she said of falling for McRaney.
She says his love helped get her through some of her darkest days, and gave her the strength to finally quit Designing Women in 1991.
“I loved my life truly for the first time. And I loved him desperately,” she shared of the This Is Us actor, adding, “I knew that I was safe and loved.”
Gerald was previously married to Pat Moran and Beverly Root and welcomed three kids from those marriages. Gerald and Burke don’t share any kids.
