Jennifer Love Hewitt, 45, says her 11-year marriage to Brian Hallisay is 'like 190 years in Hollywood'

Jennifer Love Hewitt has opened about the secret to her successful 11-year marriage to husband and fellow actor Brian Hallisay.

The actress and author usually keeps her personal and professional life separate, but since they both intersect in her latest film, The Christmas Junkie, Hewitt shared a few tidbits of their romance in an article with People. 

Hewitt, 45, is proud that they've stuck it together through thick and thin and three kids, saying of her more than a decade of wedded bliss 'That's like 190 years in Hollywood.'

The couple tied the knot on November 21, 2013, just days before their oldest daughter, Autumn was born.

They had met a couple years earlier, first on the set of Love Bites in 2011, but didn't have sparks fly until they worked together again on 2012's The Client List. 

'I thought he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen in my life,' the 9-1-1 star told the publication. 

'I said to my manager and friend at the time: "I'm going to marry that man, and I'm going to have his children." She said, "Sweetheart, I think everybody thinks they're going to marry that man and have his children." I was like, "Yeah, but I'm going to do it. Just watch."'

And while it was love at first sight for Hewitt, she thinks it may have taken Hallisay, 46, a bit more time to warm up to the idea. 

'I don't know that it was instant for him,' she admitted, 'But it was instant for me.'

The I Know What You Did Last Summer star said she wasn't attracted to Hallisay just because he was handsome, it was also because 'He was kind and he was good and close with his family and he was smart.'

'We just had fun, and I was smitten. I got lucky enough to end up with him. And guess what? I did marry him, and I did have his kids.'

The couple welcomed their second child, Atticus, nine in 2015.

Hewitt and Hallisay moved houses in 2020, and the couple thought it the perfect time to renew their vows, and invited Autumn and Atticus to participate.

'It was very sweet, and it was so great for our kids to be there and have that as a memory,' the Ghost Whisperer star said of the experience.

'They talk about it all the time, which I love. It was during [the height of] COVID, so we were just grasping for magic at that time. 

'It really did become a magical time for us.' 

Another magical moment was when they increased their family with surprise baby Aiden in 2021.

'We, I think, struggle like most parents with three kids and full-time jobs and all of the things to find our time, but I really do wake up and choose Brian every day, and I would choose him every time,' she said of her honey.

'I genuinely feel that way, even when he makes me crazy. And he continues to choose me, thank God. I am always so profoundly happy that my kids are half him.' 

Fans will get to see sparks fly between husband and wife when they star in The Christmas Junkie, which debuts on Lifetime Saturday December 14.

Hewitt co-wrote the script and directed the holiday drama about a woman experiencing her first Christmas without her mother, hired to decorate a mansion for the holidays.

Hallisay stars as the house manager who says 'Christmas isn't really my thing.' 

The script was inspired by Hewitt's love for all things holiday and how she dealt with the death of her own mother, Patricia, in June 2012.

The film was a family affair with all three of the couple's kids make an appearance. 

'It was really fun to be in a movie honoring my mom with Brian because he does such a great job of honoring her in our life, even though he only met her once,' the director explained. 

'So it was special having him there. It's like our little Christmas love letter that we'll always have.'  

The relationship between Hewitt and her late mother was also the inspiration for her new book, Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical, which hit store shelves on Tuesday.