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Denzel Washington and Wife Pauletta Celebrate 41 Years of Marriage: 'The Basic Love We Have for Each Other’

Pauletta Washington tells PEOPLE at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival that she and her husband, Denzel Washington, have a long-lasting marriage because they maintain their "basic love" for each other.

At the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of The Piano Lesson on Tuesday, Sept. 10, the couple tells PEOPLE about their son Malcolm Washington ’s directing debut. The couple met on the set of Denzel’s first movie, 1977's Wilma, but it wasn't until months later, at a mutual friend's party, that the two spoke. Six years later, in June 1983, the couple tied the knot and are parents to four children — John David, 40, Katia, 37, and twins Malcolm and Olivia, 33.

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