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South China Morning Post

Washington power couple: meet Denzel's actress wife, Pauletta

Washington power couple: Denzel Washington and his wife Pauletta are both actors and now have four children in show business too. Photo: @music_highway/Instagram Fame and celebrity Staying married for 41 years is impressive in anyone's book – let alone in Hollywood – but Denzel and Pauletta Washington make it look easy … not to mention fun. From doing red carpet after red carpet together, to going on Oprah , FaceTiming each other during live interviews and cracking jokes at one another's expense, the secret to their relationship's longevity seems to lie in not taking themselves too seriously. Denzel Washington and Pauletta Washington have been married for 41 years. Photo: @denzelonly/Instagram However, when asked in September last year why she thought she and her husband were still together, Pauletta offered a different reason: 'We work at it,' she told People. 'It's work. There are a lot of prayers for strength, for staying in a forgiveness mode … mine and his. But it's the basic love that we have for each other,' she added. So who is the woman who's been by the Training Day actor's side since the beginning? Here's what to know. She was fearless from an early age Pauletta Washington née Pearson hails from North Carolina. Photo: @wearelwd/Instagram Pauletta Pearson was born in North Carolina in 1950. Growing up in the segregated South, she began to break racial barriers at a young age by performing in prestigious piano recital competitions, per Deadline, and by being the first Black contestant to compete for the title of Miss North Carolina. Pauletta Washington and Denzel Washington at the premiere of American Gangster in 2007. Photo: @denzelonly/Instagram 'A lot of that classically trained [behaviour] came from my father and my mother in the house,' Pauletta told Perception Magazine in November 2022. ''Cause they were both professors so we had to speak correctly, we had to be able to talk, to explain properly, so I think that was my beginning, and then school.' She's an actress and musician Pauletta Washington is also an actress, starring as Mama Lu in Hulu's Reasonable Doubt. Photo: @reasonabledoubthulu/Instagram