What made Millie Bob Brown marry at the young age of 20?
Last year, Millie Bob Brown surprised her fans with the news of her marriage to Jake Bongiovi, son of legendary singer Jon Bon Jovi. While netizens poured in their love, many raised eyebrows at the actor’s decision to tie the knot at the young age of 20. Just a few weeks after she recently turned 21, the Stranger Things star made a guest appearance on Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy, opening up about marrying young and how she made the decision.
“We’ve been together for four years, so I guess maybe when we moved in together,” Brown told Cooper in the episode released on Tuesday, March 11. “We had dogs together, and we were taking care of our animals, and we started living this day-to-day life, and I thought, ‘Oh, I really don’t think I could ever see you as anything else. I don’t want to be with anyone else ever again. I don’t want to date, I don’t want to meet anyone, I want you’,” she further revealed.
Coming to what made it click for her, Brown said that exchanging opinions on serious worldly stuff like politics and parenting opened her eyes. “When we started talking about politics and how we want to raise our kids … we started talking about really, really big things that I’d obviously never spoken about, and I’m already very young, so I’ve never spoken about that with boys anyway. But to be able to even think about those things, I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I do want to be with him forever.’”
“But I obviously didn’t know if he felt that way,” Brown recalled. “We talked about marriage, but I didn’t really know when it was going to be. And then, when he proposed, I was like, it makes sense. Everything aligned.”
Rima Bhandekar, senior psycholog at Mpower, Aditya Birla Education Trust, says that it may feel a little daunting to broach serious subjects when we are young, but it could be a factor in deepening the couple’s bond to last for a long time, as we will need to experience and discuss serious matters, now or later in life. According to her, such conversations are better discussed sooner than later. “Talking about heavy topics makes it easy for couples to trust each other on those matters, and also know each other’s expectations early on so that when conflicts arise they can be dealt thoughtfully, and with respect,” she said.
Couples may feel more confident in dealing with life’s challenges as they see it as teamwork, since they are already aligned on serious topics. Bhandekar added that when you talk about vulnerabilities like fears, ideas, faith, it creates closeness and emotional bond quicker. Talking about those profound, life-changing topics also helps to evolve a partnership, keeping it interesting and connected to each other.
