Molly Ringwald's Storybook Marriage Proves That When You Know, You Know

Although the world tends to think of Molly Ringwald as the '80s icon that she'll forever be, off-screen Ringwald has a storybook marriage to go with her long and successful career. Ringwald, who had some of the best quirky style looks of the 1980s, has been married to writer Panio Gianopoulos for over 20 years. Having first met at an online literary salon in the early 2000s after separating from her husband, French writer Valéry Lameignère, Ringwald and Gianopoulos bonded over literature and music — or more specifically, their shared love for the writer John Cheever and the band The Magnetic Fields.

After a long email flirtation, as Ringwald wrote in an essay for Parade in February 2011, Gianopoulos, who has a black belt and is a trained martial artist, offered to give Ringwald some self-defense moves. Ringwald, dressed in her sexiest workout look, realized during that first date there was something there when Gianopoulos hugged her, and she didn't want him to stop. Then sparks really flew later that same night when Gianopoulos made Ringwald homemade tzatziki, and she became smitten with both the sauce and the man from then on out.

Not long after meeting, Molly Ringwald and Panio Gianopoulos welcomed their first child together, Mathilda Ereni Gianopoulos, in 2003. Then in 2009, the couple had fraternal twins, Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos. But in between having their children, Ringwald and Gianopoulos made time to get married in 2007, something that Ringwald paid tribute to on Instagram in July 2019 for their 12th wedding anniversary.

Although Ringwald was initially concerned that Gianopoulos was seven years her junior — research suggests the perfect age for a successful relationship is no more than three years — that hasn't seemed to be a problem for these two. Some of that may have to do with the fact that they always have date nights, as Ringwald told Good Housekeeping, via People. "Sometimes my husband tries to get a little adventurous and will sign us up for a cooking class or a watercolor class, which is really nice," Ringwald said. "We mix it up — you know, surprise each other a little bit."

Not only are date nights part of their relationship, but so is poetry. In June 2022, Ringwald posted a photo on Instagram of a poem Gianopoulos wrote for her in 2008. As the caption explained, Gianopoulos writes Ringwald a poem every year. "He hand-writes them in a little book and gives me the only copy," she wrote. "I published this one in my first book of essays, and it still makes my heart swell." Poetry, regular date nights, and homemade tzatziki? If that doesn't equate to happily ever after, nothing will.