Connie Chung Breaks Down the Secret to 40-Year Marriage With Maury Povich

Connie Chung and Maury Povich have discovered the secret to a 40-year marriage.

“If you really break it down, Maury and I have always had our own things that we do. I believe that you don’t have to be friends with all of his friends, and he doesn’t have to be friends with all of my friends. He can go do what he wants to do, and I’ll do what I want to do,” Chung, 78, told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting Connie: A Memoir. “We always come together and have dinner together — sometimes we have lunch together too — but we don’t get in each other’s hair.”

In Chung’s memoir, published on Tuesday, September 17, the former news anchor wrote about her long-term romance with Povich, 85. There’s even an entire chapter dedicated to their love story.

“I love Maury with all my heart, and I know he loves me deeply, but sometimes, you know, I don’t necessarily like him,” Chung wrote. “My guess is that the feeling is mutual.”

Further explaining this line to Us, Chung explained that she “could never spend all day long” with Povich.

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“That’s why I think — I know I love him, but when we spend too much time together, that’s when I don’t like him,” she quipped.

(L-R) Maury Povich and Connie Chung

Chung and Povich were in a long-distance relationship for seven years before getting married in 1984. (They adopted son Matthew Povich following his birth in 1995.)

“I kind of knew he was gonna be The One, but I wasn’t going there and he wasn’t going there. We were both single and enjoying our freedom,” she recalled to Us. “When I was ready to get tied down, he wasn’t ready. When he was ready to get tied down, I wasn’t ready. It went back and forth, and we slow-walked this relationship for a long time.”

At one point, Chung and Povich were living on opposite sides of the country, with her in Los Angeles and him in Philadelphia.

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“He was such a bad boy that I said, ‘Hey, let’s take a time-out for six months.’ And I think that was good,” she said. After the six months was up, Chung wrote that she and Povich met in the middle — literally, at a wedding in Texas. It wasn’t until she moved back to New York City in 1984 that their future fully began.

“Were it not for Maury, I could never have had the career I had. He has been my foundation, my support beam, my love, my partner in every way, for decades,” she wrote in the book. “He helped me navigate my treacherous path up the ladder. I used to think I could survive without him. The guy in me told me I was not dependent on anyone. I was just another white guy, just like him. Now I know I could not live without Maury.”

Connie: A Memoir is out now.