Judge Judy Reveals The Secret To Her Nearly 50-Year Long Marriage

Judge Judy keeps order in the court, and spice in the bedroom. 

In an exclusive interview with E! News, the television court justice (real name Judy Sheindlin) presented some compelling evidence regarding  how she keeps things fresh with her husband, Jerry Sheindlin, after spending nearly 50 years together. 

"You don't spend 24 hours together because that's deadly," she told E! News' Courtney Lopez on Jan. 24. "Jerry just celebrated his 90th birthday and I still like to look at him when he walks in the room—that's a key." 

And the 81-year-old—whose show Judy Justice just premiered its third season on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee on Jan. 22—carries the element of surprise into the courtroom.

When Courtney asked if the reality star's "epic" one-liners just come to her in the moment while filming, the judge affirmed. "Yes," she noted. "And sometimes I don't know from where." 

Still, Judy's decades-long relationship with her husband has outlasted even her illustrious television career. The couple—who share children Jamie Hartwright, 58, and Adam Levy, 56, from Judy's marriage to Ronald Levy, as well as Gregory Sheindlin, 60, Jonathan Sheindlin, 57, and Nicole Sheindlin, 56, from Jerry's marriage to Suzanne Rosenthal—have been together for nearly 47 years, aside from a brief split in the 1990s—which ultimately brought them closer together. 

"I missed her presence the very first week that we were separated," Jerry said in Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue's What Makes A Marriage Last."It was the first time in years that we didn't get to see each other every single day. It was such a strange experience."

And though Judy initially instigated the separation because she wanted her husband to put in more effort to "take care of her," she eventually agreed to give their relationship another shot. 

"I missed him," she said in the book, adding that her husband also started putting in a bit more effort. "He did learn to use a calendar better. He learned to write down: ‘October 21, Judy's birthday. Buy present, card.'"