Adam Sandler has hit a big milestone with wife Jackie Titone Sandler: They’ve been married for 20 years.
The couple got hitched on June 22, 2003 at Dick Clark’s oceanfront Malibu, Calif., estate. The Happy Gilmore and Wedding Singer star, now 56, met the model-actress, now 48,a few years earlier on the set of his 1999 hit Big Daddy, in which she played a waitress in the local sports bar.
Adam slipped out of his signature sweats for a tux on his big day, and had a white rose pinned to his lapel, while his bride stunned in a spaghetti strap dress.
Also dressed to the nines was Adam’s bulldog beloved Meatball. The dog wore a custom suit for the occasion and sported a yarmulke for the Jewish ceremony. He reportedly served as the ring bearer, walking down the aisle. (Meatball was beloved; Adam held a shiva when he died the next year.)
The nuptials were confirmed on the actor’s website, as this was pre-Facebook and Instagram. “Adam got married…WOOPITY DOO!” read the announcement.
The guest list included Jennifer Aniston, Jack Nicholson, Rodney Dangerfield, Rob Schneider and Sharon Osbourne. Adam has since said that Tom Petty crashed his wedding. The late rock star actually got into a car accident on the nearby Pacific Coast Highway, Adam later said on the Dan Patrick Show, so the “Free Fallin'” singer went inside to use the phone. (The wedding was four years before the first iPhone came out.)
“Tom Petty at Sandler’s wedding? What the hell is happening?” Adam recalled his childhood friends from New Hampshire saying at the reception.
Petty didn’t perform, Sandler said, but singer and guitarist Leon Redbone did. There was a sentimental reason behind that. Apparently Redbone was a favorite of Adam’s father, Stan, who was very sick with cancer. Stan promised he’d be at the wedding, so his son treated him to the special entertainment as a thank you.
“It was so that my father could have a great night,” Adam later said. “He was like, ‘This is great,’ and my mother whispers to him, ‘You couldn’t say Pavarotti?”
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Stan, who died shortly after the wedding in September 2003, also got a greeting from Dangerfield. Sandler recalled the Back to School star walking into a room where a chemo-stricken Stan was resting asking, “‘Where’s the dying guy?’ My father goes, ‘Hey, Rodney.’ [Rodney’s] like, ‘Hey, I’m dyin’ too.'” (Dangerfield died in 2004.)
“The Chanukah Song” singer also performed at his reception. He sang “The House of the Rising Sun” — “like I always do,” he told Patrick, adding with a laugh, “It’s a very romantic tune.”
He made it up for it by writing a song for Jackie, which he performed. It was set to the tune of “I Wanna Grow Old With You” from The Wedding Singer.
Jackie gave her new husband a bulldog puppy, Matzoball, as a wedding gift.
Over the years Jackie has appeared in nearly all of Adam’s film projects. You get the sense she has input in crafting the character — like when she played “Great Looking Flight Attendant” in 2019’s Murder Mystery. However, the comedic actress/producer does her own thing as well, recently appearing in films (like Daddy Daughter Trip) with family pal Schneider, who gave her an early break in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
The couple went on to have two daughters together, Sadie Madison, 17, and Sunny Madeline, 14. The girls have appeared in a number of their dad’s films as well, including Murder Mystery, Hubie Halloween and Hotel Transylvania.
They are funny like dad, roasting him in a speech he delivered while accepting the Film Tribute Award at the 2022 Gotham Awards in November. It included the line: “Thank you mommy for putting up with daddy and his crazy f***ing mood swings all these years. Now that truly is a feat deserving of a lifetime achievement award.”
Adam has called his wife of two decades his “forever girl.” He said when they met — on July 31, 1998 — they “locked eyes and fell deep.”
He said Jackie encouraged him to take the role in Uncut Gems, for which he received many accolades.
“My badass wife, she gave me the balls to take the part,” he said. “I was scared and she said, ‘Go f***ing do that and you can do that s***’ and we rehearsed together all the time.”
A few months ago, Adam was asked by Entertainment Tonight about this anniversary milestone.
“Well, we’ve been together for 25 [years], so we always act like that’s our anniversary, the night we met,” he said.”But 20 is good. Yeah, 20 years of marriage, that’s nice.”
Jackie said in the same interview, “He’s extremely loyal. He’s a great, great friend to have. He’s a great person. A great friend. He is funny all the time. It’s his personality. He’s always trying to make me laugh — and I’m always trying to make him laugh, so it works out.”
