The Truth About Tia Mowry's Marriage

Actress Tia Mowry and husband Cory Hardrict do marriage their way, which is probably why the two have stayed strong for over a decade as husband and wife. "We've never followed what other people thought we should've been doing, we've always followed what was right for us," the former Sister, Sister star told People about doing away with traditional gender roles in a marriage.

Mowry and Hardrict's love story began in 1999 when they met on the set of a horror flick. According to People, they were friends for a year before dating. In 2008, the two tied the knot in a beautiful Santa Barbara wedding, as Mowry shared with fans on her YouTube channel, and welcomed their son, Cree, three years later, via People. In 2018, they welcomed a daughter, Cairo, which was unexpected since Mowry was told she'd have trouble conceiving one child let alone two (per Women's Health).

Over the years, Mowry and Hardrict have had their fair share of ups and downs, even sharing some of it with fans over the years on YouTube. However, there's still a lot to uncover about these parents, actors, and lovebirds. Here's the truth about Tia Mowry's marriage.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict found love in a scary place. The two met as actors while filming an independent horror flick called Hollywood Horror in 1999, per People. It was Mowry's first feature film following her starring role in the '90s sitcom Sister, Sister, alongside her actual twin sister, Tamera Mowry (via Us Weekly). Hardrict was a struggling actor at the time and didn't have any credits to his name, according to the Global Grind.

Despite some small differences, Mowry and Hardrict became friends right after the first day of shooting, as Hardrict recounted in a video interview with Global Grind. "I was waiting at the bus stop ... [Tia's] sister and her drove by, they saw me waiting, and asked me to give me a ride," he said, adding that he was embarrassed to be found at a bus stop in a bad part of town. At the time, Mowry actually wasn't interested in love or dating, telling People, "I was in my early 20s, juggling my career and going to school." Clearly, Hardrict changed her mind because they started dating a year later.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict started off solely as friends after meeting on a movie set in 1999. "We weren't physical, we didn't do anything for a while to make sure this was something special and this was something real," Mowry told reporters during a press junket via OK! In fact, the couple courted each other for a year before officially dating. "We didn't go on dates with just him and I, there were other people around," she added.

Mowry decided to give her future hubby a chance after talking to her mom. "I remember my mom sitting me down and saying, 'Look Tia, this guy seems really nice and you should give him a chance.' That's when we started hanging out," she told People. Mowry and Hardrict shared their first kiss during a picnic for two. "That was the day he had first asked to kiss me. It was all very sweet." And the rest, as they say, is history.

When it came time to propose, Cory Hardrict made it a family affair. Tia Mowry shared on her YouTube channel that not only did Hardrict ask her parents for her hand in marriage, but he also included her entire family in the special moment. How did he do it? Hardrict proposed to Mowry on Christmas Day in 2006. At one point during dinner, Hardrict interrupted the jovial affair by telling Mowry he wanted to give her something. It wasn't a ring, at least not at first. He handed her a card and inside were instructions for her to ask her brothers to play a song on the stereo by Jagged Edge called "Let's Get Married." 

That's when he got down on one knee with a shiny diamond and asked Mowry to marry him. "I was so floored, so shocked, and everybody was just, you know, happy, crying, screaming 'Congratulations,'" she recalled in the video. At the time of the proposal, Mowry was wearing a leather jacket, a Christmas present from Hardrict, and she told viewers she still has that jacket and won't ever get rid of it.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict wed in 2008 at their favorite weekend getaway — Santa Barbara. "When we were dating and when we just wanted to escape from L.A. and, you know, spend some quality time together, we would go to Santa Barbara," Mowry shared on her YouTube channel Tia Mowry's Quick Fix. The couple would always stay at the Four Seasons, which became their wedding venue.

Both Mowry and Hardrict were involved in the wedding planning process. "That's one thing I love about Cory. It's always about this, you know, team effort that we have," she said. Their collaboration with a wedding planner created a storybook outdoor wedding full of bright, colorful flowers, a pink and purple color scheme, and lots of butterflies included on the invitations and table cards. Mowry also incorporated flowers in her beautiful custom-designed wedding dress and wore another dress, one that was easier to dance in, for the reception. Mowry shared that some of her favorite wedding moments were when she saw her hubby shed a tear during the ceremony and the walk down the aisle with her dad by her side.

Cory Hardrict knew Tia Mowry was the one early on in their relationship. In a joint Q&A video on his wife's YouTube channel Tia Mowry's Quick Fix, Hardrict shared that Mowry was very supportive from the beginning of their friendship-turned-romantic relationship, even though he was a struggling actor at the time. "When I moved to Inglewood ... I had like two pairs of drawers to my name, I was dirt poor, I didn't have anything, and she appreciated everything for what it was and she loved me for me," he said. Then, he knew once he was able to make something of himself, he'd buy Mowry a nice ring and make her his wife someday. And he did, proposing to Mowry over Christmas Day dinner in 2006. 

While Mowry was supportive, Hardrict was very patient, according to Mowry, who shared in the Q&A that when she met Hardrict she had just gotten out of a bad relationship. "My husband, he just had loads of patience with me ... He was just right there for me and held my hand," she said. "He never forced himself to kiss me or anything like that." 

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict waited until their mid-30s to start a family. As Mowry told People, it was important for her to accomplish her professional goals before becoming a mom. "When I was younger, I was focusing on my career with Sister, Sister, and I was in college and I was focused on that," she said. "Once I had all my ducks in a row — not in a complete line, at least the ducks were there — and then I was like, 'Okay! I can do this.'"

Mowry and Hardrict welcomed their son, Cree, in 2011, according to Us Weekly, and their daughter, Cairo, in 2018 (via People). Mowry hasn't been shy about documenting the highs and lows of parenthood on social media. For instance, the actress posted a pic of her breastfeeding her daughter on Instagram when she was a newborn. Mowry is clearly loving mom life, telling People that her favorite thing about it is watching her kids grow up. "They start out as a little tiny circle, then you hear their heart beat, and now they've grown into beautiful little human beings. It's so fascinating to see how they evolve," she said.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict are parents to two little kiddos, but the road to pregnancy was bumpy to say the least. As Mowry told Women's Health, she suffers from endometriosis, which, as described by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, is a painful "condition in which the type of tissue that forms the lining of the uterus is found outside the uterus." Nearly 40 percent of females dealing with infertility suffer from endometriosis.

Despite being told it would be difficult getting pregnant, Mowry and Hardrict wanted nothing more than to be parents. Before conceiving her firstborn, Mowry said she underwent two surgeries and got on an anti-inflammation diet since endometriosis is a "highly inflammatory condition." Her doctor hinted that her new diet could've helped Mowry conceive a child. "When I got pregnant with my son, I was overjoyed," she told Women's Health.

Mowry said she couldn't have gotten through her battle with endometriosis without her hubby: "I think it's really important that someone is there encouraging you, rooting you on, saying you're not alone, helping you feel stronger and more powerful."

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict march to the beat of their own drums and don't follow tradition when it comes to married life. Mowry told HuffPost Live that she and her husband have an equal partnership and don't believe in the old tradition of the woman staying at home while the husband is the breadwinner. "We don't put gender roles on our marriage and our relationship. If I'm working a lot and Cory's home, he will put Cree to bed, and if dishes need to be washed, he will wash them," she told HuffPost Live. "So it's not like, 'Oh, I'm going to wait until my wife gets home and she's going to be doing all that.'"

That especially rings true when either one of them is busy on-location shooting a film or TV show. Mowry said that anytime her hubby is away shooting films like American Sniper, she's had to play both mom and dad. "I had to take on those responsibilities that a father would do," she said. "I was out in the backyard teaching my son how to kick a ball. We don't put labels on each other."

Between working and parenting, Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict somehow find time to date each other. The parents of two discussed how they keep the spark alive in their marriage on Mowry's YouTube channel Tia Mowry's Quick Fix. "I think it's really important to go out on date nights," Mowry said, adding that she and her hubby still try to "woo" each other despite already being an old married couple. They do that by dressing up for one another and going someplace nice at least once a week or every other week depending on their work schedules.

And it's not date night if Mowry doesn't post a photo of the adorable couple on Instagram. Where does this celebrity couple go on dates? Movie premieres for one, according to Hip Hollywood. Anytime Mowry goes out with her man, she loves playing with her makeup, and she even shared with fans what her date night routine looks like on her YouTube channel.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict love going out on dates as much as they do spending time alone in the bedroom. However, it's more difficult for the busy working parents to find the time for intimate moments, especially with two little ones (Cree and Cairo) in the house. So how do they do it? 

Well, as Mowry admitted on the What to Expect podcast (via Page Six), she and her husband schedule sex dates, something she thought she'd never have to do. "When I was younger and when I would hear that, I'd be like, 'Why do you have to do that?'" the actress said while speaking to the podcast's host. "But like you said, you do — especially with kids and with work and all that. You have to make sure that it's not neglected in any kind of way." Mowry and Hardrict sure know how to keep the magic alive.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict love spending quality time with their kids in their Los Angeles pad. Mowry's Instagram is full of photos of the family posing in different rooms, including a cute one of Hardrict and their daughter embracing in their modern, neutral-toned family room.

Back in 2018, Mowry gave fans a tour of her home on her YouTube channel Tia Mowry's Quick Fix. She said she designed the interior of the home to fit both her and Hardrict's personalities. "I feel like Cory and I are like young, sexy and cool, right? That's kind of like how I would describe our relationship, so I wanted our house to be an example of that," Mowry told the camera. She also wanted it to be a sanctuary from their already busy lives and even took a few pointers from feng shui design. We're guessing their bedroom is designed perfectly for those rare alone times they get away from the kids.

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict prioritize faith in their marriage and even pray together sometimes. "I mean we're not like super, super religious but I just keep it simple and just believe words are powerful," Hardrict shared in a Q&A video about his and Mowry's marriage on his wife's YouTube channel Tia Mowry's Quick Fix.

Mowry, who was also part of the interview, said her husband is "a man of faith and a man of God." His positive outlook is what keeps her believing even during tough moments in life. "He taught me how to believe in myself more than I believe in myself. He is like my biggest supporter and biggest fan," Mowry said, adding, "He'll put something on the board and he'll say, 'Tia, I know that that's going to come to pass,' and I'm like, 'this dude is crazy.'" But, most of the times, she said it does come to pass.

Although it seems like Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict have an ideal marriage, even they deal with their fair share of ups and downs. In a joint interview with OWN in 2017, Mowry confessed that the year before had been trying on their marriage, though she didn't give any details as to why, but because they stuck it out, they were able to come out on the other side stronger and even more in love. "We continued to be there for one another, or had patience with one another and worked out whatever issues or difficulties that we were having," she said, adding, "And I fall more and more and more in love with him" with every year that passes.

Mowry and Hardrict wed back in 2008, according to People, and have since overcome dark periods, including the time Mowry wasn't sure she'd be able to have children because of her endometriosis (per Parents). Despite it all, the two have built a strong foundation that will, hopefully, last a lifetime.

Tia Mowry believes the secret to any marriage is forgiveness. In an interview with ET, Mowry shared that no marriage is perfect, and there are going to be times when a partner annoys you and vice versa. "I think a lot of people, they have this expectation going into a marriage that everything is going to be perfect," Mowry said, adding, "There are going to be days where I say something that I don't necessarily mean, if I'm annoyed or whatever — forgive him, you forgive yourself. So, I think that's the key." 

It's not just about forgiveness, Mowry said, but also appreciation, adding that it's important to express how much you appreciate your partner. In a joint video interview on Mowry's YouTube channel, Hardrict said he believes the secret is not going to bed angry at your wife and always kissing her goodnight. Looks like these two have got the whole marriage thing down.