The couple has been together for two decades and swear by living separately.

Robin Roberts and wife Amber Laign say living separately works for them.

Amber Laign met the Good Morning America anchor in 2005 on a blind date and they later tied the knot in September 2023 during an intimate home garden ceremony. While the women have kept the details of their 20-year relationship private, Laign told E! News during the opening night of the Broadway show Call Me Izzy on June 12 the secret to their marriage.

“The true secret: separate apartments,” Laign revealed while also mentioning other equally important elements of their relationship. “Communication, keeping it fresh, trust — all the good pillars.”

During a January 2023 taping of Good Morning America, Roberts, 64, told motivational speaker and author Gabby Bernstein about her plans to marry her longtime partner while discussing intentions for the new year.

“I’m hesitating because I haven’t said it out loud yet … I’m saying ‘yes’ to marriage,” the host explained. “We’re getting married this year.” She continued, referencing Laign’s breast cancer diagnosis, “It was something we had talked about but we had put it off, [Laign] became ill but … it is saying yes to that next chapter.”

In Roberts’ memoir Everybody’s Got Something published in 2014, Roberts wrote, “Amber and I have been a loving couple for almost ten years now, but we choose not to live together. Maybe that’s why we’ve lasted almost a decade!”

Laign lives in her home in Connecticut, while Roberts lives in her NYC apartment, which is close to her office at GMA.

The couple talked about their relationship and engagement on Good Morning America and how the COVID-19 pandemic deepened their relationship.

“We had talked about marriage off and on during the course of our relationship, and it didn’t come through for whatever reasons,” Roberts recalled. “But after the lockdown, we were like, yeah, we kind of like being around each other almost 24/7.”

The day after securing their marriage license in September 2023, the pair exchanged vows in Farmington, Conn., during an intimate backyard wedding with 250 guests in attendance.

Roberts and Laign aren’t the only couple to swear by living separately. Sheryl Lee Ralph and Vincent Hughes have been married for over 20 years and live on opposite coasts. Ralph’s role in Abbott Elementary requires her to be in Hollywood, while her husband is a Philadelphia senator, which requires him to be in his home state.

“He has his own life. I have my own life. He has his own real career, I have my own real career,” Ralph said while speaking with PEOPLE in January. “He has his light to stand in, I have my light to stand in. He is not looking at me thinking about status or this or that. He’s doing his thing. I get to do my thing.”

Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk are another couple who lived separately, although only for their first year of marriage.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that same year, the Goop founder told host Jimmy Kimmel that their kids played a role in the decision.

“I think, really, because we each have two teenage children whom we love very much, but we were just trying to be mindful and give them a little space and not move too quickly,” she said.

Kourtney Kardashian is another celebrity who wasn’t in a hurry to move in with her husband Travis Barker. During a 2022 interview with Amanda Hirsch on the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast, Kardashian told the podcast host the transition to a shared household would come eventually.

“We’re in the place where we’re figuring out how to blend our households and our kids and what life looks like now,” the reality star said. “For the most part, we’re getting those things in place. We do family dinner every Sunday night with all the kids at his house.”

The couple welcomed their first child together in 2023 and still live separately, although not too far apart.

When asked if a shared home was in their future, Kardashian said, “There will be. We want our kids to feel really comfortable. They have both lived in their homes their whole lives, for the most part … They each have their rooms. We are a block away.”

In an episode of Hulu’s The Kardashians, the reality star revealed her plan to move into Barker’s home and live “together under one roof with the baby.”