Billy Baldwin and Chynna Phillips have experienced a few bumps in their relationship over the years.
The actor and the Wilson Phillips singer met in 1991 before boarding a flight to New York. Phillips recalled in 2021 that Baldwin asked her out when they arrived at baggage claim. They tied the knot four years later. Baldwin and Phillips went on to expand their family with their three children: Jameson, Vance and Brooke, who arrived in 2000, 2001 and 2004, respectively.
While the early years of their marriage were seemingly joyful, the couple experienced their first rough patch in 2010 when Phillips filed for divorce. Days later, she withdrew the paperwork and decided to give her marriage another chance.
More than a decade later, Phillips revealed that she and Baldwin endured a lengthier separation at one point in their relationship.
“When Billy and I separated for six months and he was out of the house, I was holding on to anger and resentment because I felt it made me justified,” the musician said in a January 2024 YouTube livestream. “It made me feel like I was right, he was wrong, and it gave me this justification, this feeling of righteousness, this pride.”
Keep scrolling to see Baldwin and Phillips’ ups and downs over the years:
1995
Baldwin and Phillips wed four years after their airport meet-cute.
2000
The pair became parents for the first time when they welcomed daughter Jameson.
2001
Phillips and Baldwin expanded their family with son Vance.
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2004
The twosome completed their family with daughter Brooke.
2010
After nearly two decades of marriage, Phillips filed for divorce from Baldwin. The Grammy nominee withdrew the papers a few days later, and the couple subsequently reconciled.
“I started to feel a little flatlined, like I need more and want more, and I know we deserve more from our marriage,” Phillips exclusively told Us Weekly about why she decided to file. “It became so about the children and so about my business, his business, and I missed him. I really missed him. I missed laughing together, taking our little vacations together.”
Phillips explained that she reached a point where she felt “hopeless” that things between her and Baldwin would ever change. The pair decided to work on their relationship, however, and Phillips credited “working in therapy together” and making more time to communicate with helping them resolve their issues.
September 2023
Ahead of their 28th wedding anniversary, the pair shared that they were struggling to connect after their kids moved out of the house.
“Billy and I are having serious empty nest syndrome and we are hitting walls when it comes to finding joint interests! It’s a scary reality that we both feel uncomfortable admitting,” Phillips said in a YouTube video. “We’re trying to remain hopeful that we can have a meeting of minds and find activities that we both find stimulating.”
January 2024
Phillips confessed that she believes her interest in religion has led to a “power struggle” between her and Baldwin.
“I’ve been with Billy for 32 years, and we have an awesome marriage, but we definitely had the hardest couple years of our lives,” Phillips said in a YouTube livestream. “I think it’s because I just took the deep dive into Jesus, and I think he didn’t quite know what to do with that.”
She also shared that embracing her faith has made her a different person than she was when the duo first met.
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“I’m not the same person I was 30 years ago, and I refused to have the same marriage that we had 30 years ago,” Phillips explained. “It’s time for us to mature and grow. He was on board, but I think that for him it was also like, ‘Well, you’re not into the things that I’m into.’”
April 2024
Phillips revealed that a recent rough patch in her marriage to Baldwin came after she made a cross-country move. She noted in a YouTube video that they were “getting on each other’s last nerve” during a trip from the East to West Coast before being able to have a “normal conversation.”
Phillips explained that sometimes things get “frustrating because just when I feel like we’re on a roll and things are starting to get better, we start the bickering again.” However, it seemed they’ve gotten to a place with “effective communication.”
“It was definitely a victory for us because we have a tendency to just sort of spiral and the communication breakdown gets worse and worse and we’re off to the races,” she added. “Billy’s my life partner. He’s the one I want to have the healthiest relationship with. But sometimes I don’t. A lot of times I don’t because I don’t want to rock the boat, or I don’t want to put him in a bad mood, or I’m walking on eggshells.”
Despite the progress in their relationship, Phillips admitted she still never wants to “trigger” Baldwin.
“The truth is that me having that fear is keeping us from true intimacy, because it’s preventing me from opening up to him and I’m trying to guard his feelings and yet I’m causing more trouble in our marriage by doing that,” she explained. “I’m shooting myself in the foot.”
November 2024
Phillips revealed in a YouTube video that the couple started living in separate houses but hadn’t broken up.
“Billy and I are sort of in this new kind of arrangement that is actually really working for me. I don’t know if it’s working for Billster, but I’m very happy with what we’re doing,” Phillips said in the clip. “I just really felt like, where in the Bible does it say that I have to live under the same roof 24/7 with my husband? Can you please find me that scripture?”
Phillips clarified that she and Baldwin still often meet up for date nights, therapy sessions and more.
“We enjoy each other’s company. That’s what is so hard to articulate to people: that we’re madly in love, we really enjoy being around one another, we cherish our marriage, we don’t ever want to separate,” she explained. “We just need a little bit of time apart because we are sort of an allergy to one another. And it’s OK, I’m sure lots of different couples are allergies to each other.”
December 2024
One month after the pair publicly detailed their separate living arrangements, they had a change of heart.
“At that time I felt like I needed a little bit of space and really felt like that would be the most logical answer, but I have reneged,” Phillips said in a December 29 YouTube video. “I am retracting that comment, and I am now saying that is probably a very foolish, very unwise, very destructive, stupid decision because that’s not going to solve our problem with the allergy.”
The singer gushed that she and Baldwin were in a “way better place” now that they started cohabitating again.
“It’s being kind and gentle … and being more playful,” she explained. “I need more playfulness in my life, and I feel like Billy sometimes struggles with playfulness, but you know what? He’s not me, and I have to grow up and I have to realize that just because Billy is not always as playful as I consider myself to be, that is not something that I need to come down on him for.”
