Jane Kaczmarek marries high school sweetheart half a century later

Jane Kaczmarek has tied the knot with her high school sweetheart, 50 years after they first dated.

The 70-year-old Malcolm in the Middle star reconnected with Rusty Long at her 50th high school reunion in 2024. 

According to Kaczmarek, their reunion dinner sparked an instant connection. 

“It was just immediate,” she recalled, noting that a Linda Ronstadt song, ‘I Think I’m Gonna Love You for a Long Long Time’, had always reminded her of Long.

The couple became engaged in February 2025. Long proposed during a Robert Burns-themed gathering, toasting, “I’ve been in love with Jane my entire life, and I want to ask her to marry me.” Kaczmarek described the moment as “heaven.”

They married in July 2025 with the full support of Kaczmarek’s three children—Frances, 28, George, 26, and Mary Louisa, 23—as well as Long’s children and grandchildren. 

“They loved him from the minute they met him,” Kaczmarek said. “The thing children really want is for their parent to be happy.”

The couple now splits their time between Wisconsin and Pasadena, California. Kaczmarek said their love feels like a fairy tale: “You can be really corny because part of you is still feeling like a high school kid. It’s like a fairy tale.”

Kaczmarek was previously married to Bradley Whitford from 1992 to 2010. Whitford remarried Amy Landecker in 2019.