She’s the Wife of a Hollywood Star, Has Twice Survived a Deadly Illness & Stood by His Side for 46 Years

For more than four decades, she stood by her Hollywood husband as he built a successful career. During that time, she fought two life-threatening illnesses and remained steady through his periods of emotional absence.

Their marriage endured illness, distance, and change. What kept them together wasn’t luck, but choice, made again and again, through fear, silence, and recovery.

An Unlikely Start to a Lifelong Partnership

They met in 1976, inside a clothing store in Beverly Hills. His future wife was working behind the counter, wearing purple parachute pants and bright red hair. He was already famous, known across America for playing The Fonz on the hit series “Happy Days,” and had come in to buy a sports coat. Something about her presence struck him immediately.

He returned to the store the following week. Within minutes, he learned she was direct, strong-willed, and uninterested in celebrities. When he asked her to get a soda, she said, “I am not a gift service.” But then she changed her mind. They walked across the street, sat down, and shared ginger ales.

The woman was a divorced mother of one, raising her four-year-old son, Jed. Until that point, he had been firm in his belief that he would never marry someone with a child. However, meeting her overturned that idea completely. He found her kind, grounded, and deeply intuitive. Their connection formed quickly.

Within weeks, she and her son moved into his home. Two years later, in 1978, the couple was married at a synagogue in New York. They would go on to have two more children, Zoe and Max, and raise all three together in Los Angeles. From the beginning, their bond was strong, but life behind the scenes came with challenges.

A Lifelong Struggle with an Invisible Disability

When he met Stacey, his acting career was already thriving, but privately, he was battling a challenge he didn’t yet understand. Reading scripts during table rehearsals was a slow, awkward process. He often stumbled over lines, upsetting the rhythm of a scene, and used humor to hide his discomfort.

For much of his life, teachers and even family members told him he was lazy or not trying hard enough, but the real problem went undetected. It wasn’t until he was 31, and years into his marriage, that he discovered the truth.

After his stepson Jed underwent testing for learning issues, he recognized the descriptions as identical to his own experience. The eventual diagnosis was dyslexia, which explained the lifelong frustration he had carried. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m not stupid. I have something with a name,'” he later recalled.

Dyslexia is a long-term learning disorder that impacts the brain’s ability to process written and spoken language. It affects skills such as reading, writing, and spelling, even though it has nothing to do with intelligence. This most common form, known as developmental dyslexia, usually appears in childhood but can remain undiagnosed well into adulthood.

As children grow, the condition may show up in different ways, including:

• Trouble spelling basic words.
• Difficulty remembering the names of letters.
• Confusing letters with similar shapes, such as b and d, or p and q.
• Problems with rhyming.
• Avoiding reading aloud.
• Struggling to sound out unfamiliar words.
• Difficulty connecting sounds to letters or groups of letters.
• Problems understanding how sounds fit together to form words.
• Swapping the order of sounds within a word.

Not every child with one of these traits has dyslexia, but persistent reading challenges should be checked through formal screening so they can get tailored support. For the “Happy Days” actor, the emotional effects were just as damaging as the practical ones. Decades of being misunderstood left a deep mark on his confidence.

Over time, he chose to turn that experience into advocacy, co-authoring children’s books about learning differences and encouraging early detection. His daughter Zoe, who also has dyslexia, became a teacher to help ensure her students never feel the shame she and her father once endured.

Through his struggle, Stacey was a steady source of encouragement. She helped him with spelling, introduced healthier routines into their life, and stood by him as he found ways to adapt on set. Her support allowed him to manage a condition that had once defined his self-worth.

But the balance between them would soon reverse. In the early 2000s, it was Stacey who would need care and strength as she faced a diagnosis that would threaten her health and shake the foundation of their marriage.

Her First Breast Cancer Diagnosis

In the early 2000s, Stacey was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, her husband was filming the comedy series, “Arrested Development.” He accompanied her to chemotherapy appointments but later admitted he wasn’t truly present for her in the ways that mattered.

He sometimes drifted off to sleep in the chair beside her and chose to keep an acting job that took him away during her recovery, decisions he would later describe as his lowest point as a husband. Her diagnosis brought the family face-to-face with a disease neither of them fully understood at the time.

Breast cancer occurs when cells in the breast mutate, becoming cancerous and multiplying until they form tumors. While it most often affects women over 50, it can appear in younger women and, in rare cases, men. Stacey was among those diagnosed before the typical age range, forcing her to begin treatment without delay.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, possible symptoms include:

• A lump or thickened area in the breast or underarm that stays through the menstrual cycle.
• A change in breast size, shape, or contour.
• Skin changes on the breast, such as dimpling, puckering, redness, or scaling. Sometimes it becomes darker in tone or takes on a purplish hue.
• A hardened area under the skin.
• Nipple discharge that is clear or blood-stained.

Treatment varies. Some patients undergo surgery to remove the tumor; others rely on chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted therapy to attack the cancer cells. Stacey’s care plan involved months of chemotherapy — grueling, exhausting, and relentless. It left her physically drained but emotionally resolute.

Stacey completed treatment and slowly returned to daily life. The family was relieved and grateful for her recovery. For a time, they moved forward, building routines and focusing on their children. But the disease they thought they had beaten was not finished with them.

Her Cancer Returns

Several years after her initial recovery, Stacey faced the same diagnosis again. This time, the disease required more aggressive treatment — a double mastectomy. The timing of her recurrence had ripple effects beyond her own health. Their daughter Zoe was in the middle of a strained relationship with her then-boyfriend, Robert.

They had broken up months earlier, but when Robert learned of Stacey’s diagnosis, he immediately came to Zoe’s door with Chinese food and an offer to help in any way he could. His presence during Stacey’s recovery not only supported the family but also helped mend his relationship with Zoe.

Stacey’s second diagnosis brought the family closer than before. Her husband, actor Henry Winkler, who had once struggled to be emotionally present, had a chance to approach her illness differently.

A Husband in Therapy

Years after Stacey Winkler’s second battle with cancer, Henry made a decision that would change not only his marriage but also his sense of self. He began regular therapy to examine why, during her first illness, he had withdrawn instead of offering the emotional presence she needed.

In therapy, he revisited painful parts of his childhood. He described covering those wounds with what he called a “Chernobyl-like layer of cement” and leaving them untouched for decades. The process of “jackhammering” through that cement, piece by piece, allowed him to connect more deeply with those around him, especially Stacey.

Therapy also taught him to live more authentically, rather than performing the role of who he thought he should be. He credits the sessions with helping him become more patient, more attentive, and more open to sharing his feelings, changes Stacey noticed firsthand. She even joined him for one appointment, experiencing the work he was doing.

The transformation strengthened their relationship in ways that public success never could. Awards, red carpets, and professional acclaim had brought visibility, but therapy gave Henry the tools to sustain the personal life he valued most.

We’re Not the Same People

After decades together, Henry and Stacey’s marriage has become a study in adaptation. They’ve weathered serious illness, personal shortcomings, and the demands of a public career. Now, over 46 years after their wedding, they have several grandchildren.

Their bond is reinforced by simple pleasures. They enjoy fishing for trout together, always releasing their catch back into the water. They celebrate milestones as a family, from children’s weddings to the births of grandchildren. And in 2018, when Henry won an Emmy for his role on “Barry,” Stacey was by his side, just as she had been through every stage of his career.

Reflecting on their life together, Stacey has said they are not the same people they were when they married. Decades of shared experiences have shaped them, but the values they committed to early on — loyalty, support, and partnership — remain unchanged.

Their journey has been defined by more than endurance. It is a record of two people growing separately and together, facing moments that could have pulled them apart, and choosing, every time, to hold on.