Teen stardom and tween kids: Inside Freddie Prinze Jnr and Sarah Michelle Gellar's 18-year marriage.

Sarah Michelle Gellar first met Freddie Prinze Jnr on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997.

She was 19 and he was 21.

The actors played friends in the horror film but didn’t start dating until 2000.

“We were friends for two years before we ever went out on a date. She knew what kind of guy I was, what my morals were, what my priorities were, and vice versa. We already knew all the faults about the other person,” Freddie told E! News. 

They got to know each other driving to set (because Sarah didn’t have a licence) and their first actual date was an accident.

WATCH: I Know What You Did Last Summer trailer. Post continues after video.

“We were supposed to have dinner with a friend of ours, but she didn’t make her plane, so we went anyway,” Sarah told Us Weekly years later.

As their relationship kicked up a gear, so did their careers and soon they were the ‘It Couple’ in Hollywood. They played Fred and Daphne alongside each other in Scooby Doo in the early 2000s, and Sarah starred in the insanely popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer which ran from 1997 to 2003. Freddie went on to star in his own sitcom Freddie in 2005.

The couple got engaged in 2001 – a year after they officially started dating – and married one year after that.

Their wedding was held on a beach in Mexico on September 1, 2002, with 60 guests and a four day itinerary. It rained on the day, so they ended up having to move the ceremony indoors.

 

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So I keep hearing about the #loveyourspousechallenge – spread love (and the joys of marriage) by posting seven days worth of happy pictures. I realize how much sadness and tragedy fills our lives these days, and I love the idea of filling up news feeds, and timelines etc with positive stories and messages of love, so I have decided to accept the challenge and for the next seven days I will post a pic a day. Now I know I am supposed to challenge two people, but instead I #challenge all of you. Share your pics of ❤️ (although @theshando and @kurtiswarienko this one is perfect for you two)

A post shared by  Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar) on Sep 24, 2016 at 3:41pm PDT

In 2007, in honour of their fifth year of marriage, Sarah legally changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze, having kept her maiden name for the first five years of their marriage.

“I had no idea what to get [Freddie Prinze Jr.] for our five-year wedding anniversary. I’d been meaning to change my last name to Prinze, but I just hadn’t gotten off my lazy a** to get it changed,” she told BULLETT magazine.

“It’s a lot of paperwork! You have to go to the courthouse and then to the DMV. The truth is, I would have done it the first or second year, but it was my aversion to going to the DMV that stopped me.”

They went on to have two children – Charlotte, born in 2009, and Rocky, born in 2012 – who they often share photos of on social media, although they cover their faces for privacy.

 

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And we’ve never looked back #fathersday

A post shared by  Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar) on Jun 16, 2019 at 10:50am PDT

Sarah has shared in recent interviews that they try to have family dinner as many nights as they can, with no phones allowed at the table.

Talking to E! in 2015, she said they were both very hands on parents: “I mean, I think that that’s how you have to raise children today, as you want them to be independent and want them to see in our society that there is no difference between men and women and go from there.”

 

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No one ever said family pics are an easy accomplishment. But, no matter what you celebrate, or where in the world you are, the Prinze family wishes you a happy holiday, spent amongst loved ones. To all, a good night.

A post shared by  Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar) on Dec 24, 2019 at 9:52pm PST

While Sarah has continued to act, Freddie eventually bowed out and turned his attention to cooking and being a stay-at-home dad.

“I wanted to be a stay-at-home dad,” he told to GQ Magazine in 2016. “I wanted to cook breakfast and dinner for my kids every day.”

Despite their relationship being of great interest to the public, Sarah and Freddie have always been fairly private people, with Sarah replying to an interviewer’s question last year of “what’s the sexiest quality of your husband?” with “nothing I’d say to your camera”.

“There’s no keys. There’s no rules. There’s nothing like that. I don’t believe in false expectations. I just believe in knowing who you are when you start a relationship. And if you don’t, then that relationship probably isn’t going to work,” Freddie said of their marriage in an interview with US Weekly.

He also gave this morsel of advice: “Sarah likes what she likes. I don’t trash reality television. I don’t trash anything. If she digs it, cool…So, let your girls watch what they want to watch. Let your dudes watch what they want to watch. Don’t give them a hard time.”

Sarah has also shared advice for a lasting marriage over the years, telling Brit + Co in 2017, “Speak up for what you want and be heard and let your feelings out. I mean if you don’t communicate to your waiter your not getting your order, if you don’t communicate with your partner you’re not going to get what you want”.

The couple have just celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary, posting throwback photos to Instagram. 

"You are my favourite husband," Sarah captioned her post. 

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You... are my favorite husband #happyanniversary

A post shared by  Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar) on Sep 1, 2020 at 10:14am PDT

And like the rest of us, they’ve spent most of the last few months trying to homeschool their children, with Sarah posting on Instagram after dying her hair pink to tell her followers: “Well because we’re still in quarantine, I had to think of a new and creative way to embarrass my children. Quaran-color!”

 

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Yup, this sums it up #homeschooling #quarantine day 63000 I think (and don’t ask what day of the week)

A post shared by  Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar) on May 13, 2020 at 11:14am PDT

Freddie and Sarah have no future plans to star in movies together again, and in fact take it in turns to take on work projects to ensure that there’s always a parent at home.

After two decades together, Sarah says it’s not just love that is important – it’s like.

“I think it’s great to be in love, but it’s also nice to like each other and like spending time together,” she told Steve Harvey.

This post was originally published in May 2020 and has been updated on September 2, 2020.

Feature image: Getty/Instagram.