Kevin Smith CreditsChasing Amy'Muse,' Ex Joey Lauren Adams, for His Marriage That's Lasted 25 Years

Mar. 15, 2025

Left: Kevin Smith and Jennifer Schwalbach Smith in Hollywood, Calif., on Dec. 16, 2019; Right: Joey Lauren Adams in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 28, 2024.Photo:Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage; Amy E. Price/Getty

Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage; Amy E. Price/Getty

Kevin Smith’s relationship withJoey Lauren Adamshas stuck with him, more than 25 years after they broke up.

“She was my muse,” Smith, 54, says during a joint interview with Adams, 56, in filmmakerSav Rodgers' newly released documentaryChasing Chasing Amy.

“I became the person that I became for the rest of my life because of that relationship. I never went back to being the other guy,” Smith says in the documentary.

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Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams in the ’90s.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

In fact, his time with Adams had such an intense effect on him that it, in turn, ended up having a huge impact on Smith’s marriage toJennifer Schwalbach Smith, whom hemet in February 1998and tied the knot with just over a year later.

“There’s no way I would be in a marriage that has lasted 20 years if I didn’t meet Joey and she didn’t shape me,” he says in the documentary.

Smith and Jennifer, 53, celebrated 25 years of marriage this past April. The couple share one child: 25-year-old daughterHarley Quinn Smith, who was born two months after her parents wed.

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Jennifer Schwalbach Smith and Kevin Smith.Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Touching on his gratitude forhis wife’s supportover the years, he explained, “I spend a lot of time on the road and doing gigs elsewhere and whatnot, and over the 25 years she’s traveled with me a bunch and then lately she stays home to watch the dogs and stuff like that.”

“She’s been there shotgun through 25 years of this, and she’s always been gracious about taking a back seat to it,” he told PEOPLE. “When you’re married to an artist — an artist who lives with his or her head up their ass thinking about, ‘Oh my God, the whole world has to know what I think and feel’ — I would imagine that must be irritating to live with. But she’s lived with it for a quarter century.”

“I can’t speak for her, but I just like seeing her. I just like being around her. She’s my human,” Smith added.

Chasing Chasing Amy,which premiered at the 2023Tribeca Film Festival, is in select theaters now.

source: people.com