Dick Van Dyke Steps out Publicly for Rare Outing With Younger Wife

Dick Van Dyke made a rare appearance with his second wife, Arlene Silver, on May 18 in Malibu for lunch. On February 29, Van Dyke, 96, and the former makeup artist, 50, celebrated ten years of marriage.

The legendary actor, who has had two previous 30-plus-year relationships, admitted that he never expected to find true love again. He also feared that people would disapprove of their May-December relationship. “I thought there would be an outcry about a gold digger marrying an old man,” Van Dyke told Closer Weekly in March. “But no one ever took that attitude.”

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Van Dyke was wearing a gray sweatshirt with “Spoonful of Sugar” on it.” “Spoonful of Sugar” is a famous song by Julie Andrews from the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins. Dyke played Bert, a cockney chimney sweep, in the film.

Van Dyke is also known for starring in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Mary Poppins Returns (2018). On Valentine’s Day, the pair performed an energetic cover of the song “Everybody Loves a Lover,” popularized by Doris Day in 1958, alongside barbershop trio the Vantastix and trumpet player Tony Guerrero.

Arlene was credited with being the reason for Van Dyke’s health and happiness at age 96. “We share an attitude,” he revealed to Closer. “She can go with the flow. She loves to sing and dance, which we do almost every day. She’s just delightful.”

Van Dyke first met Silver at the 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2007, where he presented Julie Andrews with a lifetime achievement award. In an interview with HuffPost, Van Dyke said Silver “stopped [him] dead” in the green room of the SAG Awards. He told The Washington Post that he was speaking to Cate Blanchett when Silver walked by, prompting him to initiate a conversation.

Silver told HuffPost in 2013 that she had seen Van Dyke’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the Thursday before the awards.”I remember seeing Dick at the catering table with his bow tie and his big smile. Right when I sat down, he was sitting next to me. He said, ‘Hi, I’m Dic,’” Silver told the publication. “The first thing I asked him was, ‘Weren’t you in ‘Mary Poppins’?’ I wasn’t sure.”

Silver told the outlet that she was hired by Van Dyke to work on some of his Hallmark movies. “We got along immediately as friends, so it didn’t feel like he was so much older than me.” She told Closer, “He is the most perfect human being. I’ve never met anyone so happy, so genuine, so amazing. He’s just like a happy pill.”

In 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that Van Dyke’s partner of thirty-plus years, actor Michelle Triola, died of lung cancer in the home they shared together. Van Dyke told HuffPost that Silver came to visit him after work to bring him food, cook, do his dishes, and check in on him in the year following Triola’s death. 

“I fell in love pretty hard,” Van Dyke told the publication. Silver told HuffPost that their relationship “became something else” during that time. Silver and Van Dyke wed in a private ceremony at a chapel near Van Dyke’s home in Malibu, The Hollywood Reporter reported in 2012. 

“One of the smartest moves” Van Dyke ever made was to marry Silver, he said in a Parade interview from 2013. According to Van Dyke, everyone thought he was “crazy” when he married somebody “half” his age. “But she’s an absolute angel,” he told HuffPost.

“But she is just an absolute angel. She sings and dances so there’s a lot of that going around the house. She’s a great cook,” he said. “And the age difference hasn’t been a problem at all. Emotionally I’m about 13. She’s very, very wise for her age so I’m just having the time of my life,” he added.

Van Dyke also had a 30-year marriage to the late Margie Willett, which ended in 1984 after a six-year separation, with four children – Christian, 72; Barry, 70; Stacy, 60; and Carrie, 60.