Soap opera star Jack Wagner, 65, may be a newlywed, but don’t expect him to play house.
In an interview with Parade published on Wednesday, Wagner shared that he has no plans to move in with his wife, singer-songwriter Michelle Wolf, whom he married last month.
“It’s kind of cool, you know? She has her place. I still have mine,” Wagner told Parade. “We’re both super comfortable in our places and going back and forth, and so we’ve decided, let’s not rock the boat and sell this and sell that and try to find something.”
The actor, known for his roles in “General Hospital” and “Melrose Place,” added that marriage hasn’t changed their daily routines much.
He and his wife are still “kind of living the life we lived when we dated,” he said.
“We take a couple nights off, and then we trade off who’s going to be where because I think we both know that the older we are, it’s nice to have a little space. Not too much, but it’s okay! It works,” Wagner said.
Wagner was previously married to his “General Hospital” costar Kristina Wagner from 1993 to 2006. They have two sons, one of whom died in 2022 of a drug overdose.
He was engaged to his “Melrose Place” costar Heather Locklear in 2011, but the two called off the wedding.
A study published in March of over 15,000 British people between 60 and 85 years old found that older couples living apart experienced more mental health benefits than single people.
Logan Ury, a dating coach and director of relationship science at Hinge, previously told Business Insider that living apart is more appealing to older couples because they tend to have a “stronger sense of self.”
“They’re less flexible and they have their ways of doing things,” Ury said.
While younger couples are like startups that grow together, older couples are more like mergers. “Mergers are notoriously hard because each one has their own HR department, their own CEO,” she said. “It can be hard to blend those things.”
Having a bit of space can be key to a healthy relationship. Some couples choose to have a “sleep divorce” instead of living apart. Sleep divorce is when couples decide to sleep in separate beds, or even separate rooms.
In June 2022, television host Carson Daly said that not sharing a bed with his wife was the “best thing” for his marriage.
In July 2024, Bette Midler said that sleeping in a separate bedroom from her husband is the secret to her long-lasting marriage.
A representative for Wagner did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular hours.
