Malcolm in the Middle’s Jane Kaczmarek Reflects on Marrying Her High School Sweetheart 50 Years Later (Exclusive)

If you listen to Jane Kaczmarek talk about her childhood boyfriend turned later-in-life husband, Rusty Long, for just five minutes, you’ll believe in love again — trust Us.

“I cannot believe I’m coming back to where I started and this boy that I loved,” Kaczmarek, 70, exclusively shared in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now. “It has been such an amazing gift to me… I couldn’t make up a better man for me at this point in my life.”

The actress — who stars on Hulu’s sitcom revival Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, streaming now — had been divorced for 15 years when she ran into her teenage boyfriend, Long, 71, at her high school reunion.

“It’s a massacre, getting divorced. It’s just sad. [But] I had three children and I have wonderful friends,” Kaczmarek — who was married to fellow TV star Bradley Whitford from 1992 to 2010 — told Us. “I realized, even with a divorce, that the love and friendship and support you get from your girlfriends is fantastic, and that was really a great sustenance of love for me. And then to bump across my high school boyfriend was so friggin’ nuts.”

The actress’ best friend had married Long’s best friend, which led to the foursome to grab dinner together following their high school reunion.

“Going to dinner with him after 50 years, when he touched the small of my back, I went right back to being a 15-year-old girl kissing this boy I liked,” she told Us with glee. “That is a magical, heady thing to experience when you’re 70.”

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The pair first dated when they were students at Greendale High School in Wisconsin. After graduation, Long went off to pursue a law degree, while Kaczmarek attended drama school and pursued a career in acting.

Five decades later, the actress was amazed to find that Long was still the rock-loving guy he’d always been (they attended a Led Zeppelin concert together as teens — and yes, “‘Kashmir’ still makes us so hot for each other,” she says), but she was equally struck by “how interesting he’d become” over the decades. Standing in front of her was a thoughtful attorney who loves poetry and Out of Africa.

So she did the only reasonable thing she could: She married him.

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“To hear him say, ‘I’ve been in love with you for 52 years,’ was like waking up from a coma,” she told Us. “It sounds corny to say that, but man, it’s just been great.”

The pair tied the knot in a Wisconsin barn on July 5, 2025, with all three of Kaczmarek’s children present, as well as Long’s kids and grandkids.

As the couple approach their one-year wedding anniversary, Kaczmarek still feels like a giddy schoolgirl around her husband, but with the unexpected benefit of age: “[Our kids] are both grown. There’s nothing [we] have to think about but each other. Wow, that’s swell,” she added. “You think the three most important words are ‘I love you,’ and I realized the three most important words for me are ‘Honey, I’m home.’”