Why ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Star Ray Romano Says His Wife ‘Took a Gamble’ on Him
Ray Romano has moved on from Everybody Loves Raymond since the CBS comedy aired its final episode in 2005, yet is still often seen as his character Ray Barone. The hit sitcom often featured real events from Romano’s life as storylines in the show.
The actor is actually quite successful in his personal life, recently celebrating 33 years of marriage with his wife Anna. Romano explained why he wouldn’t have blamed his spouse if she had turned him down for a date back in the 80s.
Ray Romano, bank teller?
Married to Anna since 1987, Romano and his wife have a full house with four kids. The former sitcom star revealed that the two were both working at a bank in the 1980s when they met.
“Wasn’t good,” says Anna said in 2005 of her husband’s competence as a bank teller, according to CBS News. “He was accurate, but very slow.”
Romano didn’t make his move until he had quit working at the bank, fearing rejection once he got the nerve to ask Anna for a date.
“She wasn’t the first girl I asked out from there,” the Everybody Loves Raymond alum told Graham Bensinger in 2016. “It was less pressure because I could have sworn it was going to be no. My batting average wasn’t that good, so who knows.”
‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ star didn’t consider himself dating material
The Parenthood star was still living with his parents when the two started dating. Romano also admitted he didn’t arrive at work with 4-wheel transportation.
“She took a gamble,” the Emmy winner said of his wife. “I lived at home until I was 29, but she already started dating me when I was 26. I was 25, riding my bike to the bank – I lived 3/4 of a mile away and I would be late.”
Romano credited his wife for being able to see that there was more to him than what was on the surface.
“I don’t know that I was A-list material as far as potential boyfriend or husband,” Romano commented, adding with his trademark humor, “but she wasn’t materialist – then.”
Ray Romano and his wife celebrate 33 years of marriage
The Romanos shared some of their story in the book What Makes a Marriage Last by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue. Anna revealed that when she started dating her now-famous husband, the two were taking things slow.
“We didn’t have any expectations when we were dating,” the mom of four said. “Kids today, they have this idea of what they’re looking for in the future. We were happy, so we just took it day by day.”
With the unpredictability and scheduling demands of Hollywood, Romano is grateful for the freedom Anna gives him to pursue his professional goals.
“Anna knows that my career makes me happy, and that a lot of my life is about the next show or the next thing,” the Vinyl star explained. “But she’s given to me the space to do that because she knows that she and the kids are still the most important thing to me.”
The couple celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary on October 11, 2020.
