NEED TO KNOW
- Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo opened up about the secrets to their long-lasting marriage in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
- The collaborating couple has been married for over 40 years and share two daughters
- “We’re together 24/7, and we know how to give each other space in the same space,” Benatar said
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo’s love is still going strong after all these years.
The rock legends, who have been together for more than four decades, told PEOPLE the secrets to their long-lasting marriage while attending WhyHunger’s 50th Anniversary Chapin Awards Gala in New York City.
“A marriage rule? What, you’re always right? Yeah, that used to be a thing, but we don’t do that anymore,” Giraldo, 69, teased, as Benatar, 72, replied, “But it worked for so long.”
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The couple first met in 1979. They then became partners both professionally and personally, with Giraldo serving as Benatar’s lead guitarist, and the two later wed in 1982.
Benatar and Giraldo went on to welcome two daughters — Haley, 40, and Hana, 31 — and they later became grandparents to Stevie, Lola and Cash.
Adding more to her and her husband’s go-to rules for maintaining their union, the “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” musician said, “We never go to bed angry.”
“Right, but here’s the thing, too,” added Giraldo. “We’ve learned how to be quiet and still be in the same room together and not have to talk to one another, and that’s good.”
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The pair said they are also mindful of giving each other space, as they spend so much time, personally and professionally, together.
“We’re together 24/7, and we know how to give each other space in the same space,” Benatar said, as her husband chimed in to add, “Other than that, I have no idea. I mean, we’ll make stuff up if we want.”
Benatar and Giraldo have been professional collaborators for over 40 years. They are four-time Grammy winners, with 36 million albums sold worldwide. Benatar and Giraldo were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
The pair just ended a concert series, but they plan to soon be back on the road as special guests on Bryan Adams’ Roll with the Punches Tour.
Benatar and Giraldo are also co-authors of a soon-to-be-released children’s book, My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!, which will be published later this year.
Speaking about how they will soon travel to play music again, Benatar told PEOPLE, “It’s like breathing. Kind of pack the bags and go, you know?”
She continued, “We play so much, so it’s not that we’re just going to take a couple of months off, and it’s just, like, a reset. We just do it again, that’s all.”
Giraldo said he is looking forward to hitting the stage again, minus the prep that goes into it.
“I hate rehearsing. I really hate rehearsing. I just want to go out and play — whatever happens, happens in real time,” he said. “Be in the moment. … You know, be real.”
Benatar, for her part, enjoys the prep, however. “I just want to rehearse for three months,” she said.
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During the WhyHunger event, Benatar and Giraldo were honored with the ASCAP Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award.
They received the honor for their advocacy efforts in support of the global nonprofit’s mission to end hunger and its root causes.
The inaugural Bill Ayres Social Justice Award was presented to CNN’s Laura Coates.
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