The candid words of Pam Dawber about her marriage with Mark Harmon

The actor's wife was also prominent in Hollywood, but she took a step back from the limelight after the couple tied the knot.

In November 2016, Pam Dawber explained why she chose not to continue her promising acting career after she married Mark Harmon in 1987.

As reported by Fox News, Dawber felt that she would not be able to keep her marriage together, raise their children, and maintain a successful acting career.

Dawber and Harmon have been married for 30 years. By Hollywood standards this is an eternity, as many celebrity marriages can't even last out the first 5 years.

But Dawber confides that she chose to take a step back from the camera in order to make it work.

"I don't think two people can work all the time in show business and stay married," she explained of her decision.

When the pair first married she was coming off the high of the success of Mork and Mindy, in which she starred opposite Robin Willimas. As a result, she could easily have had her pick of acting jobs.

At the same time, her husband's career was also going from strength to strength. Today, Harmon is still a firm favorite on CBS's top rated naval crime series NCIS, but Dawber seems to have disappeared.

The former actress explains that after having their 2 sons, she gave up her career to raise them properly.

Dawber's last notable role was voicing Perdy in the 1998 series 101 Dalmatians. By then she had appeared on Broadway doing musical theater, and had worked on a number of films and series.

She was content with all the roles she had been able to experiment with in Hollywood, but was not prepared to continue her career at the expense of her children and their lives.

"I wanted to drive my kids to school. I wanted to be there for birthdays and bring cupcakes and donuts and do school festivals and all that. I got to teach in their art class and I was very happy to do it," she explained.

Sean is now 29, while Ty is 25.

Dawber also expressed her displeasure at celebrities who have their children splashed across the newspapers and tabloids every week, and refused to put her own sons into the limelight.

To her, marriage and family is 'real life', and not meant for everyone else's entertainment. She said that despite her early fame, her sons have never seen any of her work, because she is just their mom.

Dawber feels that having a famous father was enough for them to deal with.

With her sons now in their mid- and late 20's, she does make a guest appearance from time to time, most recently in The Odd Couple's tribute episode to Garry Marshall, who helped Dawber out when she first starred in Mork and Mindy.