Hilarie Burton Shares Rare Insight Into Family Life With Jeffrey Dean Morgan

These two have perfect chemistry onscreen and off. 

Hilarie Burton is giving fans a rare peek into her relationship with husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan, revealing how she and the Walking Dead actor have kept the magic alive for more than 14 years.

"My husband is my muse when it comes to work," the One Tree Hill alum wrote in her new book Grimoire Girl. "I see the effort he puts into it. I see how committed he is to breaking stereotypes. He's not afraid to cry when he plays a legendary tough guy. He is generous with his affection. He cares very much about the words and will have hard conversations with writers and producers to make sure that the characters and stories are honored."

And playing an onscreen husband and wife in The Walking Dead was a special moment for them both—and also a reminder to Hilarie of how lucky she is. 

"Working with him on The Walking Dead was such a warm and fulfilling experience," the White Collar actress continued. "We have very different relationships with acting. For me, it is something that I have done my entire life, having been put in classes while in preschool. Jeff came to it much later and struggled in Los Angeles for a lot of years before he started working. And so, his appreciation for what he gets to do for a living is this beautiful reminder for me of what the work is really about."

And as two working actors who have the busy schedules to match, the 41-year-old—who shares son Gus, 13, and daughter George, 5, with the Grey's Anatomy alum—said time apart has made their time together all the more special. 

"The idea of only seeing your spouse half the year doesn't seem so outlandish to me as an adult," she wrote, while making comparisons between Jeff and Hades, and the myth of Persephone. "Jeff has been on the road for work since we met, and it just makes the hellos and goodbyes more passionate. I liked that this marriage was a marriage of two independent, strong personalities."

So, when those strong personalities do clash, the Drama Queens podcast co-host has a secret weapon—tomatoes. 

"When I make spaghetti sauce or chili, I make a point of having my son with me as we crush the whole Italian tomatoes in the pot by hand," she explained in Grimoire Girl, which is part memoir, part spell book. "I tell him to make a wish or an intention with each tomato he squeezes."

She continued, "What my husband doesn't know is that sometimes when we've been bickering, I will do that as a little bit of love magic to calm him down. Crushing tomatoes becomes the action of quashing the argument. I don't know if it's the spell, or the fact that he feels really loved when he's cooked for… but that s--t works!"

These anecdotes are rare for the couple, who've largely keep their relationship so private that their 2019 nuptials surprised many who'd assumed they wed years before. 

"We've lived as husband and wife for a decade," Hilarie wrote on Instagram at the time when reflecting on their wedding. "We've built a family, and a farm and found our community. For years, publications have reported that we got married in 2014 or 2015 and that I've been married and divorced before. All untrue. But WE knew our truth. So it felt silly to try and correct anything. From the moment I met @jeffreydeanmorgan , he was my husband. Rather than make vows right out of the gate, we lived them. For over ten years."

"I love you Jeffrey," she continued. "I love our intimate group of friends and family who joined us. It was private and magical and everything I dreamed. So yeah. I'm Mrs. Morgan."

And to live even more of their romance from the very beginning, keep reading. 

So how did Jeffrey and Hilarie first cross paths? It all started in 2009 thanks to the actor's Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles, who organized a blind double date for Jeffrey, Hilarie, himself and wife Danneel Ackles. 

"I [got lit]. We all did. We ended up back at my house drinking shots of tequila," Morgan recalled during a 2015 interview with the Huffington Post. Jeffrey and Hilarie would make their red carpet debut as a couple in 2010. 

The duo shocked Hollywood in 2010 when it was revealed that the One Tree Hill actress had given birth to a baby boy named Augustus. A source told E! News at the time, "She told friends about her pregnancy back in August [2009] after she had spent a lot of time with Jeffrey on location in New Mexico."

At the 2011 premiere of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, the new parents gave a rare interview to E! News about their bundle of joy. "He just said 'no' for the first time, which is f--ked up," Jeffrey teased. "In one week it's just like, 'No, no, no!'"

"But everything is a first," he gushed. "It's been spectacular... a lot of not sleeping, and then our one adult night we come here. This is our date. Can you believe it?"

Starting in 2014, they began covertly referring to each other as "husband" and "wife." Despite reports of an undercover wedding, The Walking Dead star denied his leading lady had in fact walked down the aisle to become Mrs. Jeffrey Dean Morgan. 

Jeffrey and Hilarie left the hustle and bustle of Hollywood for a more quaint lifestyle in the town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York. There they live on working farm, and as Hilarie explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2014, she spends most days in a "Carhartt flannel and covered in paint and sawdust and muck boots." 

The stars aligned in 2015 when Hilarie was cast on his CBS series Extant. He told Zap2It of the coincidental co-starring, "When I took the job the deal was, ‘We'll get you home as much as possible,' and that just hasn't worked out. But Hilarie got a job on Extant, which was fantastic. You'll see her a couple of times throughout the season, so that's one way we've been able to keep the family sort of together."

At the 2016 premiere of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Hilarie planted a sweet smooch on her handsome date for the evening. 

A little-known fact about Jeffrey and Hilarie, they co-own a candy store with Paul Rudd and his wife! 

Samuel's Sweet Shop is located in their hometown, and as the actor told HuffPost, "A friend of ours, who owned it for 20-plus years passed away tragically... We own a candy store in upstate New York and we have great coffee and great chocolates."

The private pair stepped out at the 2017 Golden Globes oozing Hollywood glam. Discussing his villainous Walking Dead character with ET, she shared, "It's made him good cop at home. He gets all his bad cop stuff out of the way at work and then he comes home and he's happy dad."

When Gus turned 7, his mama wrote on Instagram, "Gus is a Titanic freak, so went to Reagan Presidential Library for the Titanic exhibit. Such a great day. Birthday adventures with my boy!"

At the 2017 Emmy Awards, he hinted that Hilarie was pregnant again. They ultimately confirmed that their family was growing, and Jeffrey let it slip that they're expecting a little girl!

In March 2018, Jeffrey confirmed that their baby girl had arrived. "Hey y'all... baby gal morgan is spectacular," the actor tweeted. "We just respecting her wishes for laying low a bit longer. But we super appreciate all the well wishes n stuff. Thank you. Xojdhilgusandbabygal."

"I just want to put it out there that WE GOT MARRIED! For real," Hilarie announced on Instagram in Oct. 2019. "We've lived as husband and wife for a decade. We've built a family, and a farm and found our community. For years, publications have reported that we got married in 2014 or 2015 and that I've been married and divorced before. All untrue. But WE knew our truth. So it felt silly to try and correct anything."