Rob Lowe Shares How He Reconnected With His Wife After Becoming an Empty Nester

As Rob Lowe and his wife, Sheryl Berkoff, came to terms with their two adult sons being out of the house, they found a silver lining as they reignited the spark within their marriage.
“Becoming one was actually super emotional for me,” he told singer and actress Jennifer Hudson. “I was so sad. … [But] I love being an empty nester now.”
Lowe added that the departure of sons Matthew, 31, and John, 28, marked a new beginning.
“I was sad when they left, and I thought, this is the end of that relationship with your kids. It’s not. It’s just the beginning of a new chapter,” he said.
“The Outsiders” star has been married to Berkoff, a jewelry designer, for 33 years. Sitting across from Hudson, Lowe shared about the day he and his wife inconspicuously tied the knot.
“We didn’t want anybody to know about it. We didn’t want it to be in the papers. So we had it at a friend’s house and told people they were coming to a daytime luncheon with a wedding theme,” he recalled.
“And we kept the guest list really, really small. It was great, I loved it.”
“It’s all about who you choose,” he said. “Sheryl was and is my best friend. So if you marry for anything other than the fact that it’s your best friend, you’re at a disadvantage from the jump. Because that will sustain when the other stuff ebbs and flows.”
The 60-year-old actor also shared that he and Sheryl “keep the heat” in their relationship.
One of Lowe’s first leading roles was in the 1983 television film “Thursday’s Child,” in which he played a high school football player dealing with a critical illness. His performance earned him his first Golden Globe nomination.
Lowe received his big break that same year when he made his feature film debut as Sodapop Curtis in “The Outsiders.”
Lowe went on to star in more films, such as “The Hotel New Hampshire” (1984), “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985), and “About Last Night” (1986) with Demi Moore. Lowe received his second Gloden Globe nomination for his role in “Square Dance” (1987).
From 1999 to 2003, Lowe played White House communications director Sam Seaborn in the political drama “The West Wing,” which earned him two more Golden Globe nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Lowe’s most recent projects include the television series “Unstable” and “9-1-1: Lone Star.”