Photo: Andrea Raffin / Shutterstock
Get to know the Happy Days star Ron Howard's wife!
By Deauna Roane — Written on Oct 21, 2020
Ron Howard is beloved for his role as Richie Cunningham on TV’s Happy Days from 1974-1980.
And it just so happens that the Happy Days cast is reuniting to support Democratic candidates in Wisconsin, the state in which the sitcom was set.
Howard's illustrious career in the entertainment industry includes 75 award nominations and 37 wins; 2 of those wins were Academy Awards.
Howard has been everything from child actor to director to Oscar winner to husband to father, but what do we know about his darling wife of over 4 decades?
Who is Ron Howard's wife, Cheryl Howard?
Cheryl Howard was born on December 23, 1953, in Glendale, California. As a Sagitarrius, she grew up as a tomboy.
Her father was a big part of her life and her ambitions. She developed an interest in travel and adventure when she was quite young because her father was an avid traveler.
Her father's adventures, along with some of her own, inspired many of her books and especially her debut novel, In The Face of Jin. The book took nine years to write.
“I have great difficulty putting sentences together. Slowly but surely, though, I have progressed as a writer. Ron, thank God, didn’t tell me how horrible I really was. He let me sort of evolve,” Cheryl said of writing her first book.
After graduating high school in Burbank, California, Cheryl attended California State University and received a Bachelor's degree in psychology and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in screenwriting.
What does Cheryl Howard do for a living?
Cheryl Howard is an American writer and actress. She has appeared in several of the films her husband directed, 11 to be exact.
She was a background character in many of the films including Splash, Apollo 13, Ransom, A Beautiful Mind, The DaVinci Code, and Angels & Demons.
How did Cheryl and Ron Howard meet?
The Hollywood couple first laid eyes on each other while attending John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California. Yep, they're high school sweethearts! Howard was in his junior year and immediately felt connected to Cheryl in their shared English class. “I met her, and there was never anybody else,” Ron said of his wife.
He continued, “She’s unbelievably supportive and always has been. Our compatibility has endured through all kinds of experiences.”
It wasn't long before the two tied the knot; Cheryl was 21 when they got married on June 7, 1975. They have been married for 45 years as of June 2020 and the secret to a long marriage, the couple says, is communication and learning to have difficult conversations in constructive ways.
Ron Howard kids — how many does he have?
Cheryl and Ron have four children; 3 girls and 1 boy. The eldest is actress Bryce Dallas Howard, 39, then came the twins Paige and Joycelyn Carlyle Howard, 35, and then the youngest, Reed Cross Howard, 33.
Something incredibly interesting about the four children is that each one's middle name is a reference to where each of them was conceived. Bryce's middle name is for the city in Texas, the twins were named after the New York Carlyle Hotel, and Reed's middle name comes from a street in London. "My dad would make this joke, 'I didn't want to call him back of the Volvo!,' Bryce revealed about her brother's middle name.
The entire family is made up of redheads. The recessive gene is strong in the Howard family.
Who is Rance Howard?
Rance Howard is the father of Ron Howard and father-in-law to Cheryl. Rance was a writer and actor and best known for his work on Nebraska, Universal Soldier, and Small Soldiers. He died on November 25, 2017.
What is Ron Howard's net worth?
Ron Howard's net worth as of 2020 is around $200 million.
Ron Howard's family is very close.
Throughout the Howard kids' Instagram, they all seem to have a lot of fun and are proud of being weird. Reed posts funny pictures with his wife Ashely, like this one.
Bryce is also a fan of fun; she posts photos like the one with her and her dad matching wearing baseball caps.
They're also clearly very close with one another: Paige's Instagram is filled with pictures of her parents, siblings, and children.
There are so many group gatherings of the Howards on social media that it's clear the red-headed family are a tight-knight group.
Who is Ron Howard's daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard?
Bryce Dallas Howard is the first child of Ron and Cheryl Howard who was born on March 2, 1982 and the most famous of the kids.
The Pisces is an American actress who's best known for her work on Jurassic World, The Help, and Gold. S
he also was an extra in a few of her dad's films, like Apollo 13 where she appeared as an extra with mom Cheryl, playing a mother and daughter.
She attended the Tisch School of Arts at NYU but left before graduating to act on Broadway.
She's married to actor Seth Gabel and they have 2 children together.
Deauna Nunes is a writer who covers pop-culture, self, and love topics.