Molly Ringwald Reveals the Secret to Her More Than 20-Year-Long Relationship with Husband Panio Gianopoulos (Exclusive)

Nicholas RiceSun, October 25, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC

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Panio Gianopoulos (left) and Molly Ringwald (right) in June 2006, Panio Gianopoulos (left) and Molly Ringwald (right) in June 2008.Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock;  All Access Photo/Shutterstock -

Molly Ringwald reveals the secret to her relationship with husband Panio Gianopoulos in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE

The couple started dating in the early 2000s and wed in July 2007

Ringwald and Gianopoulos are parents to three children: daughter Mathilda, 23, and twins Adele and Roman, 17

Molly Ringwald and Panio Gianopoulos have kept their relationship strong for more than two decades thanks to a few simple rules.

“I think the secret is to make sure that you take care of your relationship, to communicate,” the actress, 58, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Ringwald — who shares three children with her husband: daughter Mathilda, 23, and twins Adele and Roman, 17 — continues, “I always tell my kids, it’s not worrying about whether or not you fight, it’s how you fight. Something we always keep in mind is treating each other with respect, not speaking to each other ever with contempt, no name-calling.”

“You can say, ‘You’re acting like a blah, blah, blah right now,’ but you can’t say, ‘You are a blah, blah, blah,’ “ adds the Sixteen Candles alum. “We also stay away from the word ‘always.’ Don’t say, ‘You always do this,’ or, ‘You always do that.’ ”

“It’s all work, but hopefully it pays off,” Ringwald says, then comparing a successful lengthy relationship to a garden. “If you water it and fertilize it, and if you give it everything that it needs, I think if it’s the right person, it flourishes.”

Panio Gianopoulos (left) and Molly Ringwald (right) in New York City in April 2005.Credit: Paul Hawthorne/Getty

Ringwald and Gianopoulos met online in the early 2000s, shortly after the actress separated from her first husband, Valéry Lameignère, to whom she was married from 1999 to 2002.

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The pair first talked about books with mutual friends in an online literary salon. Later, they started to email back and forth before they eventually met up in person.

Gianopoulos, a trained martial artist, made Ringwald tzatziki with garlic for their first date. “Who prepares garlic on a first date? Had I misread everything?” Ringwald wrote in an essay for Parade, recalling the start of the pair’s relationship.

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Ringwald and Gianopoulos eventually tied the knot during a private ceremony in July 2007, and they welcomed their first child in October 2003, and their twins followed in July 2009.

Ringwald — who has recently partnered with Pfizer to raise awareness about pneumococcal pneumonia — praised her husband as “an amazing father” during a past interview with Good Housekeeping. “I thought because I was a woman, I would know what to do all the time, but I really think he’s the natural,” she said.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”