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Patrick Dempsey speaks up about saving his marriage with wife Jillian Fink

3 min read
Patrick Dempsey speaks up about saving his marriage with wife Jillian Fink

"We both wanted to fight for it"

In January 2015, Patrick Dempsey announced that he was splitting from his wife of 15 years, makeup artist Jillian Fink. But they kept working on their marriage, and were even spotted in November 2015 holding hands in Paris.

Rainy day in Paris…

A photo posted by Patrick Dempsey (@patrickdempsey) on Jun 20, 2016 at 7:13am PDT

In May 2016, Dempsey confirmed that they had reconciled.

The 50-year-old actor, who shot to fame after portraying “McDreamy” on Grey’s Anatomy, told People about how they worked on repairing their marriage.

Dempsey recently brought his wife and their three kids (Talula, 14, twin sons Darby and Sullivan, 8) to the premiere of Bridget Jones’ Baby—the couple’s first official public appearance since announcing their plans to call it quits.

“Our marriage was not something I was prepared to let go of”

Photo courtesy of @nina.clare suit @Ferragamo

A photo posted by Patrick Dempsey (@patrickdempsey) on Sep 5, 2016 at 5:01pm PDT

“Our marriage was not something I was prepared to let go of,” he said. “I didn’t feel like we had done all the work. And we both wanted to do that work. That’s where it started.”

Find out how Dempsey and Fink worked on their marriage on the next page.

The actor admitted to People that the potential end of his marriage was “scary,” saying, “It’s always destabilizing when you’re potentially breaking up a family or you have a big section of your life that’s ending.

Thanks to couples counseling (“very important,” he says), the couple were able to patch things up. “You’ve got to keep at it,” he went on. “You’ve got to communicate, and stay open and not get lazy. And not give up. And lots of sex!”

It looks like they’ve really rekindled their romance; in this Instagram post, Dempsey sweetly captioned the photo, “My smokin hot wife.”

My smokin hot wife Bridget Jones London premiere. #imwithjack @ferragamo photo @nina.clare

A photo posted by Patrick Dempsey (@patrickdempsey) on Sep 5, 2016 at 4:14pm PDT

Dempsey left Grey’s Anatomy in April 2015, and has pulled back from his long-time hobby of car racing, which Fink had cited as a source of strain on their marriage.

“You can only do one thing at a time and do it well,” he explained. “I [learned] to prioritize. Our union has to be the priority. I wasn’t prepared to give up on her and she wasn’t either. We both wanted to fight for it.”

(Lead photo: YouTube)

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Written by

Cristina Morales

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