Dick Van Dyke helped his wife Arlene Silver celebrate her 54th birthday when he surprised her at a party in Malibu, California.
The legendary star of “Mary Poppins” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” 99, sang “Happy Birthday” to Silver and shared the story of how the couple met at the party, which took place Sept. 21 at Aviator Nation Dreamland.
In footage posted Sept. 28 on Instagram, Van Dyke said he and Silver, who have an age gap of about 46 years, first crossed paths nearly two decades ago at the 2006 SAG Awards.
“We’ve been married 13 years. In two and a half months, I’m going to be 100 years old, I hope, and I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman in my life than this one,” Van Dyke told the cheering crowd.
“I never walked up to a strange woman in my life,” the “Mary Poppins” star continued, recalling the couple’s first meeting. “I was backstage at the Emmys, I guess—”
“SAG Awards,” Silver sweetly interjected.
Van Dyke continued, “I was waiting to go on. She walked by and, without even thinking, I jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ And I found out she was a makeup lady, hired her, and now we’ve been married 13 years, and I couldn’t be happier.”
“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” he added, gazing at Silver.
Van Dyke and Silver have opened up about their relationship in the past with Silver telling The Huffington Post in 2013 that she had never seen “Mary Poppins” when she first met the actor.
“I remember seeing Dick at the catering table (at the SAG Awards) with his bow tie and his big smile,” she recalled. “Right when I sat down, he was sitting next to me… I knew who he was, but I wasn’t sure why I knew who he was. I was not familiar with all his work.”
After Van Dyke hired Silver to work as a makeup artist on some of his Hallmark movies, the two hit it off, she told the outlet.
“We got along immediately as friends, so it didn’t feel like he was so much older than me,” she said.
After the 2009 death of Van Dyke’s companion of 35 years, Michelle Triola, Silver reached out to help care for Van Dyke.
“Arlene would come by after work and bring me food,” Van Dyke told People in 2013. “She was such a support, I fell in love.”
Silver described Van Dyke to The Huffington Post as “the perfect human being” and “also the perfect partner.”
She also told “Entertainment Tonight” that the couple’s age difference is “irrelevant.”
“I think when you see us together, it’s like you don’t think about it.”