Katharine McPhee, 39, and David Foster, 73, are going on five years of marriage. And the couple, who share son Rennie, 2, have a surprising secret that keeps their union thriving. “Therapy. A good therapist,” Katharine told E! News for comments published on October 23. “Or that you just have someone in your life or another couple in your life that is helpful when there’s discord, disagreements.”
The American Idol alum also confessed that it takes “practice” to keep a good dialogue going, even after years of romance. “I really feel like you can talk through most everything, but you have to have the language, the vocabulary to do that,” she told the outlet. “So that takes practice and self-awareness and having skills to facilitate those conversations.”
Katharine claims there is an “ease” to working with David, and the two often perform together. “We met each other 18 years ago in this exact space—like a recording studio, in a work environment,” the mom of one said. “So, that’s truly where we know each other the best is knowing the ease, and the greatness, and the way he works and just always gets the best thing out of people.”
Though the power couple is clearly happily married, they’ve endured criticism for the wide age gap between them. But Katharine once explained why that doesn’t matter. “We all have the ability to label things and to look at something for the way that it looks or face value and make a judgment,” the Smash actress told Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast during a 2021 appearance. “So I totally get the judgment initially, but things are never as they appear, things are never exactly as they appear and I’m in love with our love story and that’s all that matters.”
Katharine and David married in 2019 and welcomed Rennie in 2023. David has five other children across various relationships. Katharine was previously married to actor and producer Nick Cokas.