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It was November 1, 1970. Ron Howard was 16, a junior at John Burroughs High School in Burbank. America already knew him as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show. Happy Days was still a few years away. Cheryl Alley was his classmate. Not an actress. A smart, private girl who wanted to write. He asked her out. Their first date was a re-release of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, then pizza at Barnone’s in Toluca Lake. He picked her up in a 1970 VW Bug. He proposed three times. They married on June 7, 1975, in Burbank. He was 21. She was 21. The wedding cost about $800, paid for by her father, with cake and punch in the church courtyard. Andy Griffith and Tom Bosley were there. Hollywood’s line was the usual one: child stars do not stay married. Ron went on to direct Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, which won Best Picture, and The Da Vinci Code. Cheryl wrote, stayed mostly off camera, and raised their four children: Bryce Dallas Howard, twins Paige and Jocelyn, and Reed. She has said little. He has said plenty. “I met her, and there was never anybody else.” In June 2026 they marked 51 years of marriage. Their first date was almost 56 years ago. No public divorce. No scandal. He still calls the marriage an adventure through calm water and tricky rapids, and says the only method was to love and respect each other enough to keep paddling. 🌹