Laura Louie Didn't Leave Woody Harrelson Even after He Cheated On Her

Three-time Academy Awards nominee Woody Harrelson is one of his generation's most versatile and influential actors. Still, few know the inside story of his 2008 marriage to Laura Louie.

Actor and playwright Woody Harrelson is a man of many accomplishments with an awe-inspiring list of films, awards, and nominations to his credit, but he never considered himself husband material.

Laura Louie, Woody Harrelson's wife since 2008, taught the actor the value of commitment and family. Still, the couple went through some difficult moments in over three decades together.

Woody Harrelson was born in Texas on July 23, 1961. His mother, Diane, was a secretary, and his father, Charles, was a hitman convicted of killing a judge for $250,000 in 1979 when Harrelson was 17.

Harrelson studied English and Theater at Hanover College in Indiana, and after graduating in 1983, he moved to New York to work in the theater. In 1985, he was cast as Woody Boyd in the hugely successful sitcom "Cheers," opposite Kirstie Alley and Ted Danson.

After "Cheers" ended, Harrelson started landing parts in movies, and his role in "Natural Born Killers" proved he was leading man material. Since then, Harrelson has made his mark in films like "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "Play It to the Bone," "No Country for Old Men," "The Messenger," and the "Hunger Games" trilogy.

While working on "Cheers" in 1987, Harrelson met Laura Louie, the young woman to be his companion until their marriage in 2008 and throughout his incredible film career.

Woody Harrelson Thought He Was Incapable of Long-Term Relationships before He Met Laura

According to the actor, up until the age of 28, most of his relationships were one-night-stands, except for his brief first marriage to playwright Neil Simon's daughter, Nancy Simon. The two were on vacation in Tijuana in 1985 and got married as a joke.

Harrelson was afraid that she would find out about his cheating from the newspaper.

They were supposed to get divorced the next day but ended up married (on paper) for another ten months. Harrelson admitted that he had never considered marriage seriously until three years after he divorced Nancy Simon. He confessed:

"I never believed in the concept of [marriage]. I just never believed that it made any sense, this long-term monogamy thing that humans do.(...) I just was incapable of long-term relationships. I was with whoever would have me. Then I met my wife."

Laura Louie Was Woody's Assistant before Becoming His Wife

Harrelson revealed that he met Louie during a UCLA-organized media workshop while working on "Cheers." He asked the group if anyone had secretarial skills, and Louie put her hand up. Harrelson hired her, and she was his assistant for the next three years.

While on a Christmas trip to Africa, Harrelson found himself thinking about his amazing assistant in a very different way. Still, all the friends he talked to and who knew his track record with relationships advised him not to risk it.

Harrelson wrote a song confessing his feelings and sang it to Louie, who revealed that she had been in love with him for years. The couple welcomed their first child in 1994, and by the time they married in 2008, they had three daughters.

Louie and Harrelson's Maui wedding was lowkey, with just a few close friends and family in attendance, and unlike the usual celebrity extravaganza, it cost $500. But the relationship between the newlyweds had already had some upheavals.

Woody Harrelson Cheated on Laura Louie, but She Still Stayed with Him

In 2002, Harrelson was in London doing the play "On An Average Day." One night he was drinking in a bar when he was approached by three girls who propositioned him. The actor went along and was caught by a paparazzo in bed with the three women.

Louie was in Hawaii with their two daughters, then eight and six years old, and Harrelson was afraid that she would find out about his cheating from the newspaper. Her reaction was not what he had expected. He revealed:

"What she said to me after finding out was, 'That must be really hard for you, to have this [expletive] exposed.' She just said that. Now that doesn't mean she wasn't upset. (...) But she forgave me, and we're still together."

Laura and Woody Raise Three Wonderful Daughters Together

Harrelson and Louie's three daughters are Deni, born in 1994; Zoe, born in 1996; and Makani Ravello, born in 2006. Harrelson admits that being a husband and a father transformed him into a person. He admitted:

“This life and my family – my wife and my daughters, they kind of loved me into a better human being.”

The couple raised their three girls out of the public eye, and Harrelson was once in an altercation with a photographer for trying to take a snap of the girls. Deni and Zoe, who are now grown women, were home-schooled by their parents, while Makani had a more conventional upbringing.

Zoe was featured in a short film with her dad, "U2: Song for Someone," and her baby sister Makani debuted in Harrelson's film "LBJ" in 2016 and had a small role in his 2017 experimental film, "Lost in London."