Harry Connick Jr and Jill Goodacre have been together 33 years. Here's how their life looks now.

Harry Connick Jr has lived a life enmeshed in music. 

Growing up in New Orleans, he'd often see jazz players playing live and people dancing on the streets. Instinctively, he became a vocalist and pianist by the age of five.

"I’d be completely different if I hadn’t grown up in New Orleans –  there was music everywhere," he told The Guardian in 2021. 

"All this was normal to me, and it wasn’t until I left that I realised how fortunate I’d been to be surrounded by this incredible diversity of live music."

The singer, songwriter and actor rose to fame in 1989 when he was asked to put together the soundtrack for the iconic film When Harry Met Sally.

"That film meant I went from selling thousands to selling millions of records and it put me out there on an international level," he told the publication. 

Harry Connick Jr. singing for the soundtrack of When Harry Met Sally, circa 1989. Image: Getty.

He added, "It was before the internet, so if you were on a billboard people were going to hear about it. Those were much simpler times."

The soundtrack achieved a double-platinum status in the United States and Connick Jr won his first Grammy Award. 

A few years later, in 1990, the now 55-year-old singer met Victoria's Secret supermodel Jill Goodacre. Reports at the time said the jazz musician and model had met at an exclusive party – but truthfully, their chance encounter was merely a coincidence. 

"I was staying in [Los Angeles]. Jill walked past me at the hotel pool, and I introduced myself," he told Glamour in 2007. 

"She had a really strong handshake. If that had been it between us, just that moment, I would've thought about it for the rest of my life."

Henry Connick Jnr and Jill Goodacre, 1990. Image: Getty.

Goodacre knew instantly he would be her husband. 

"What's really funny is that [Jill] called her mum that night and said, 'I met the guy I'm going to marry.' Of course, she didn't let me know," he told GQ.

Four years after their encounter, the pair tied the knot in New Orleans. 

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"I married my best friend and I married a woman who I look up to infinitely," the singer told Us Weekly in 2019. "We have the same values so it's easy for us to try and impart those on our children."

It's been 29 years since their wedding day, and despite the stereotype that Hollywood marriages end in divorce, Connick Jr and Goodacre have defied that.

"It’s a commitment; you are making a commitment. This isn’t something I’m doing for 10 years, or 20 years, it’s a long haul, for the rest of my life. I’ve got one wedding ring, and that’s the only one I want." he told Risen Magazine. 

The couple welcomed their first daughter, Georgia, in 1996 – two years after their wedding. They later had Kate in 1997 and then Charlotte in 2002. 

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The singer shared that having a family filled with four girls is a learning lesson every day.

"I wouldn’t change having three daughters for anything," he told The Guardian. "I love learning about women and every day that goes by I’m more aware of how incredible women are."

He continued, "I think it’s something you have to study as a man, and I’m so lucky to have four women in my immediate family from whom I can gain perspective and be inspired and learn from. I’m in awe of women and everything they endure."

In 2017, the couple publicly spoke about Goodacre's breast cancer battle. After being diagnosed in 2012, she decided to share her journey on the five-year milestone.

"It wasn’t like we were superstitious, like if we said something about being in the clear we’d somehow jinx it," she told People.

"But we wanted to be well on the other side of things before we told everybody. The doctors all say that after the five-year mark, things look optimistic, so we’re starting to feel pretty good."

Connick Jr lost his mother to ovarian cancer at 13 years old and confessed his own wife's diagnosis "scared" him. 

"I was scared I was going to lose her, absolutely. I wasn’t going to let her see that, but I was. I know from losing my mom that the worst can happen. She’s my best friend, and I really don’t know what I would do without her," he told the publication.

Henry Connick Jnr and Jill Goodacre, 2019. Image: Getty.

Earlier this year, the family of four moved to Australia temporarily so he could be a judge Australian Idol – although it wasn't the first time Connick Jr has been in the country. 

In 2009, he was part of the Red Faces segment on Hey Hey It's Saturday: The Reunion when a group of men performed a Jackson 5 song in blackface. 

The racist act was slammed by Connick Jr. He quickly left the country afterwards and didn't return until 2023.

''I left the country not long after that show, so I wasn't really privy to a lot of the comments,'' he told TV WEEK earlier this year.

''But the comments that I did hear, people seemed to be appreciative of being made aware of something that maybe they didn't know a lot about, because my comments on the show were with regard to the history of minstrelsy in America.

''I've never been shy about speaking about something that I think needs to be discussed.''

Now he's travelling the country with two of his daughters, who are "convinced" they want to live down under. 

''Oh, she's convinced she's going to move there, as are my other daughters," he said. 

Feature Image: Instagram/@harryconnickjr.