William Daniels turned 97 this year, while his wife recently turned 95. However, it’s not just their long lives as individuals that are remarkable, but also the 73 years they have spent together as a couple.
“It seems like we’re breaking records,” Bartlett Daniels told PEOPLE in an interview.
“I mean, we both broke a record when we got the Emmys on the same night for the same show. That was a record breaker, nobody had ever done that. Now, it seems like in Hollywood there are no marriages that are 73 years old, so we seem to break records.”
The couple, who first met as students at Northwestern University, wed in Moline, Illinois on June 30, 1951. They share two children, sons Michael and Robert, after losing their firstborn William Jr. shortly after his birth.
Bill and Bonnie have spent a lifetime together, but the Little House on the Prairie actress commented that, “[y]ou never stop learning. You never stop being surprised. I never know. Every once in a while, he’ll do something, and I think, ‘Where did that come from? Where did that come from?’ Or, he the same with me. We never stop being surprised by what somebody does.”
Daniels is most notable for his role as Mr. Feeny throughout the seven-season run of Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000. Around his 96th birthday, he spent time with his former Boy Meets World co-stars. He and his wife reunited with Will Friedle, Danielle Fishel, and Rider Strong, who played Eric Matthews, Topanga Lawrence, and Shawn Hunter, respectively, on the TV series.
Friedle told PEOPLE in June 2022 that he “still shoots out the pearls of wisdom.”
“His wife, Bonnie, as well. Talking to them is still magical,” he said, to which Fishel added, “If you’re willing to listen, Bill is dropping gems left and right.”
Now that the Boy Meets World alum has largely departed from his Hollywood career, he and his wife are “very happy” these days and spend their time with their three sons and multiple grandchildren.
“We sit in this house and we do things. He reads his New York Times, and he does Cameos mostly. And we do conventions and things like that,” Bartlett Daniels told PEOPLE. “We just like to be with each other. And we would do anything for each other.”
