Jon Bon Jovi Admits He Hasn't Always Been A 'Saint' In Marriage

Despite being one of the most legendary rock stars of our time, Jon Bon Jovi, 62, has managed to remain out of the “sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll” cliché that has plagued other musicians. In fact, he’s been married to his high school sweetheart, Dorothea Hurley, 61, since 1989.

However, in a new interview with The Independent, Bon Jovi admits that he hasn’t always been a “saint” in his long union.

“The couple married at the Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas in 1989, and in a few weeks will celebrate their 35th anniversary. He credits their longevity to ‘a mutual admiration society, and being lucky enough to have grown up together,’ but accepts, too, that it has required a degree of tolerance on her part. On the 1993 single ‘Bed of Roses,’ he sang regretfully of his dalliances on the road.”

“‘These are all the wonderful clichés of rock stardom,’” he told The Independent. “‘It’s about never lying about having been a saint, but not being a fool enough to f--- up the home life, either.’”

Prior to marrying Hurley, Bon Jovi dated actress Diane Lane in 1985. He said in a 1989 Rolling Stone interview that his brief dalliances cemented his relationship with Hurley.

“‘It took us some time to find ourselves, in our personal lives as well as our career. So I did that. I went out and had a … whatever you want to call it. I went out with a girl for ten months, a year maybe.’ It’s unclear whether Bon Jovi is referring to Lane, considering she’s said they were together for five months on multiple occasions. ‘You come to terms with who you are and what you’re about. That lifestyle is not for me,’ he continued.”

Bon Jovi recalled to People magazine this year the reaction he got when he and Hurley eloped.

“Despite soaring success of their smash ‘Slippery When Wet’ and ‘New Jersey,’ Bon Jovi recalls making a split-second decision to tie the knot while they were ‘enjoying a moment’ when he was on tour at the time.”

“‘We were in Los Angeles, California, the band was on the road on the New Jersey tour, and if you opened up the curtains of my hotel room, there’s a big billboard of the five of us [Bon Jovi band members] staring into my window,’ Bon Jovi recalls. “My girlfriend, who was my fiancée at the time, we had a night off, and I said, ‘I need a higher high—I got an idea. Let’s go to Vegas now.’ And she said, ‘Now?’ I said, ‘Now.’”

“‘Once the news went public, ‘it shocked a lot of people—shocked about everybody: the band, management, agents, lawyers, parents, you name it. It's a shame because it should have been a beautiful moment, but after we did it, people were trying to take it away, until I stood up and went, ‘Wait a minute, why are we living our life for anyone else?’ And 35 years later, we're still married.’”

Bon Jovi and his wife are well-equipped to give marriage advice when their son, actor Jake, 21, weds his longtime girlfriend, “Stranger Things” actress Millie Bobby Brown, 20.

“‘I’m happy for him,’” said Bon Jovi. “‘They are two young people that are pursuing a dream together, so we’re supportive of it, because our hope for them—and Millie’s parents’ hope for them, because Bob and Kelly Brown, too, met when they were very young—is that the kids will grow together. Anything after that is out of all four of us as parents’ control, but they’re good kids. They’ll figure it out.’”