Lela Rochon & Director Antoine Fuqua Have Been Married for 20 Years & They Have 2 Kids

Actress Lela Rochon and director Antoine Fuqua recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. The couple, who met at a party in Hong Kong, is one of the few long-lasting marriages in the entertainment industry, and they keep going strong.

Lela Rochon, better known for her role as Robin Stokes in the film “Waiting to Exhale,” is a proud wife and mother of two beautiful children: Asia, 16, and Brando, 14. She is also the stepmother of Fuqua's 26-year-old son Zachary.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

She met her husband, “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua, while both were in Hong Kong for work appointments in 1998. She was promoting “Knock Off” with co-star Jean Claude Van Damme, and he was shooting “The Replacement Killers.”

Facing difficult times together also helped them strengthen their bond. Like the time Rochon suffered a miscarriage at 5-months during her first pregnancy.

"It was the night of the handover when China was getting its independence back from Britain,” Rochon recalled of the night he met Fuqua in an interview with JET magazine. “There was a huge celebration, and we met at a party in Hong Kong. It was pretty much love at first sight."

She continued:

“We went on this really, long, long date all over the island going to parties because over there they sleep by day and party all night. It’s pretty unbelievable, but we ended up naming our daughter Asia as corny as that is.”

They got married in April 1999, and despite their busy schedules, have managed to maintain a healthy relationship as they raise their two kids and keep on making strides in their professional careers.

A SUPPORTIVE WIFE

On their 19th anniversary, Rochon shared a pic of their wedding day on Instagram and captioned it:

“Happy Anniversary to Us # 19. I knew when we met over 20 years ago in #hongkong, you were the man for me. I’ll never forget this moment, ‘Ladies and gentlemen Mr & Mrs. Antoine Fuqua.’”

She also showed how proud she was of Fuqua when he won a prestigious award at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards last February.

"Congratulations to my husband #antoinefuqua who received the Filmmaker Award last night at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards. #blackexcellence," she captioned her post.

THROUGH THE GOOD AND BAD

Talking about the secret to making their marriage work, Rochon admitted that they are “very clear” when communicating with each other. "You have to be strong, and you have to have a lot of trust," she added.

Facing difficult times together also helped them strengthen their bond. Like the time Rochon suffered a miscarriage at 5-months during her first pregnancy.

At the time, she was working on the TV series “The Division,” and although she was physically healthy, Lela was overworking herself and going through a lot of stress.

"Five months into my first pregnancy, my water broke while at work," she recalled in an interview that appears in "The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy." And continued:

"It was 4:00 p.m. I had to deliver a little boy, but he was too young to survive. It never occurred to me that something so terrible would happen to me. I was working too much, and I was stressed. A week before I lost the baby, I was at the Golden Globes smiling and grinning on the red carpet. I didn’t realize how stressed I was."

GOING FORWARD

After that traumatic experience, Lela became pregnant for a second time, and she took a step back from work to have bed rest and focus on delivering a healthy baby.

"The point is that losing a child changes everything you feel and do from there. Probably the biggest problem was me. You always feel that it is your fault when something happens," she admitted.

And concluded:

"I know everybody’s situation is different, but I also think you never truly get over that kind of loss and you never trust your body again until you see a healthy child come. When my daughter came, and she was healthy and happy, it made everything okay."

Now that their kids are teenagers, Rochon and Fuqua have been re-focusing on their careers

He recently directed an HBO documentary on Muhammad Ali, and it’s currently working on the film "Infinite." While Lela, on the other hand, will have a recurring role on the OWN series' "David Makes Man," set to be released in August.