Dick Van Dyke and wife Arlene Silver address their 46-year age gap: ‘Irrelevant’

nypost.com:

Dick Van Dyke. The iconic actor opened up about his marriage to wife Arlene Silver, whom he met at the 2006 SAG Awards, in a new interview. “I never approached a strange woman in my life,” Van Dyke, 98, told Entertainment Tonight. “She walked by and I jumped up and I said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ I had no idea she was half my age.

Beautiful.”“She had one [business] card left, which I took and hired her,” Van Dyke added of the makeup artist.She laughed: “I had never seen ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show,’ I never saw anything he was in.”The pair — who have a 46-year age gap — would be friends for years before ever having a romantic relationship.

Van Dyke was previously married to the late Margie Willett, with whom he had four children. He later had an affair with his agent’s secretary, Michelle Triola, before divorcing Willett in 1984.

His 35-year relationship with Triola lasted until her death in 2009. She died of lung cancer at age 76. Silver would bring him food following Triola’s death. “She was such a support, I fell in love,” Van Dyke told People in 2013.The Mary Poppins actor and Silver got married in 2012, one year after she moved in with him.“We were friends for so long that when I told people that I know, they were happy about [our relationship], and I was scared,” Silver told ET. “I mean, the facts, our age difference.