Meet Star Wars legend Mark Hamill’s wife of 46 years, Marilou Hamill, as she reveals what it’s like being married to Luke Skywalker – the Force is strong in this union

People of a certain age will know Mark Hamill from when he first appeared as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars in 1977. As moviegoers fell in love with George Lucas’ space opera, they also fell in love with its protagonist – and Hamill became a huge star. Even though he’d already met his future wife by then (more on that later), the fame went to his head, and they broke up for a while. “I had to taste groupies and fame,” he admitted to People magazine in 1981. “I went to Las Vegas to date 38-year-old showgirls. That was exciting for about the first 10 minutes,” he added. “Eventually, I wanted something to hold on to, and a family.” Almost 46 years later and he and Marilou Hamill are still going strong. So what’s their secret, and what do we know about her? Where is Marilou Hamill from? Marilou Hamill née York was born and raised in Carmi, Illinois. She was clearly a model student, because she wasn’t just a majorette in her high school band, but also class valedictorian. She studied dental hygiene locally at Parkland College before scoring a job at a dental surgery in Westwood California. How did Mark Hamill and Marilou meet? Hamill walked into the dental surgery where Marilou was working as the receptionist and thought she looked like a pin-up girl in an Alberto Vargas painting. The pair began dating, but after Star Wars took off, they broke up. As Marilou told People magazine, she decided to keep busy. “I ran my own life. But all the time I thought I was good for him, so I was hoping we’d get back together.” She was right, and the pair married in 1978. How many children do Mark and Marilou have? The couple have three adult children: Nathan, born in 1979; Griffin, born in 1983; and Chelsea, born in 1988. Nathan and Griffin are both artists, while Chelsea works in PR for her parents’ company, Amazing Invisible Inc. All three of them were also given minor cameos in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, starring Daisy Ridley and John Boyega. Their dad also reprised his role in the film. She’s invested in ageing research These days Marilou acts as CFO for Mark’s companies Hamjamill Inc and Amazing Invisible Inc, but also spends a lot of her time in voluntary roles associated with the University of Southern California (USC). Aside from being on the university’s board of directors, she’s also on the board of councillors at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, which studies ageing. “I was just fascinated with the research that the faculty are doing, and with the fact that I was getting older and not younger, it just became a perfect fit,” she explains on USC’s website. She’s a member of a secret society In 2020, Marilou was inducted into the prestigious Skull and Dagger society at USC. The secret society inducts new members each year drawn from prominent alumni. The process ends with an initiation breakfast and, famously, an outlandish prank played on others at the university. Long before Marilou was a member, the Skull & Dagger society played a Star Wars-related prank on the students. Per the Los Angeles Times, in 1999, 300 students and members of the media lined up at the school’s auditorium after it was announced a new Star Wars trailer would be screened there. Instead, as they waited, a U-Haul trailer pulled up beside them displaying a poster that read, “Star Wars Trailer – Episode 1.” What’s the secret to their long-lasting marriage? According to an interview Marilou gave to ABC in April 2018, the key to surviving a marriage in Hollywood is to “stay out of Hollywood”. “We don’t live in town, so we don’t go in and do all the party circuits”, she told the outlet. However she and their children do accompany her husband for his film premieres. “It’s fun to be together like this,” she said. “As you get older, you start treasuring the times you get to spend with family.”