Almost 32 years and counting. Nary a scandal, nary a public meltdown. Instead, it’s been smooth sailing for Jonathan Frakes and Genie Francis… though that doesn’t mean the duo hasn’t put in the work.
How Did Jonathan Frakes and Genie Francis Meet?
“Love Her. Use Her. Or Destroy Her. Everyone Wants A Piece Of Tyger Hayes” So reads the ad campaign for the lavish Warner Bros. Television-produced serial Bare Essence.
The program aired on NBC in October of 1983 and starred 20-year-old actress Genie Francis — fresh off her five-year turn as General Hospital’s Laura Spencer.
Francis was the much put upon Tyger Hayes and actor Johnathan Frakes played her brother-in-law Marcus Marshall — a man who wanted to use and destroy her!
Slow and Steady
By all accounts, Frakes and Francis got along swimmingly during the one-season-and-done shoot but upon its completion, they went their separate ways. Two years later, they were once again co-stars — this time it was in the ABC miniseries North and South.
This time around, the actors began to feel a romantic spark igniting between them and by the next year, they were a full-blown romantic pair. In 1986, Frakes proposed marriage and Francis happily accepted.
Jonathan Frakes and Genie Francis Get Married
The wedding took place on May 28, 1988. A nervous Frakes spent the pre-service hour pacing from one end of the parking lot to the other. At the ceremony’s commencement, Francis was escorted down the aisle by her older brother, Ivor, since her beloved actor father, also named Ivor, had passed away almost two years prior.
In a bit of good humor, the officiant explained to Frakes that, “You’re going on a voyage where no man has gone before,” referencing the actor’s current gig on the syndicated science fiction program Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Coast-to-Coast and Expanding Family
Though long-distance relationships usually crash and burn, the Frakes marriage persevered during the two and half years that Francis lived in New York and toiled on both the All My Children soundstage and the performance arena of many an Off-Broadway theatre.
Once Francis made her permanent exit from the Big Apple — and accepted an offer to reprise her role of Laura Spencer on General Hospital — she and Frakes began to give serious thought to expanding their family unit.
In 1994, the Frakes became the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy — Jameson Ivor — and three years later he was joined by a sister — Elizabeth Francis.
Respite
For a time, the Frakes bid the hustle and bustle of L.A. life adieu and lived in semi-retirement in Belfast, Maine. When the occasional directing job came Frakes’ way, he would normally accept it and Francis whittled away her spare time by opening a small cottage furnishing store that she named The Cherished Home.
New Enterprises
But like most exits from show business, theirs didn’t last the long haul. Eventually, the two returned to the West Coast — though they maintained their Waldo County residence — and Francis sold her business. The latter move prompted by the actress’s acceptance of a role on The Young and the Restless.
And, if it wasn’t enough that the husband and wife team were both busy with their respective duties as director and actor, they soon added another career to their resumes: house flipper. Among the couple’s many triumphs was a renovated Woodland Hills mansion that earned them a profit of nearly $2 million.
Grandma Knows Best
During an interview in October of 2018, Francis responded to a question concerning her 30-year marriage by passing on the best piece of advice she ever received. “The only thing I can tell you is what my grandmother told me: ‘To stay married a long time, you have to be willing to have a couple of really bad years. And you may have to have them more than once.’
“In other words,” Francis clarified, “you find ways to work through what’s going on between you and your partner. Because, that’s what marriage is: an agreement to work through it.” After almost 32 years together, it looks like these two understand Grandma’s sage advice.
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