Cheers star Ted Danson has recalled being grilled by his new girlfriend’s close friend, then-President Bill Clinton.
Danson, 78, met Mary Steenburgen, 73, when they starred together in 1993’s Pontiac Moon. They married two years later and their relationship remains a Hollywood success story.
While moderating a panel with Bill, 79, and Hillary Clinton, 78, on Saturday, Danson said his wife had been close with both Clintons “since the early days.”
Their friendship blossomed in the late ’70s when Clinton was the governor of Arkansas, where Steenburgen grew up. Steenburgen’s father met Clinton, who introduced him to his daughter, and she soon became friends with both Clintons.
Danson then shared a story of meeting the first couple in the 1990s after becoming serious with Steenburgen.
“One of the first things she did was take me to meet her dear friends in the White House,” Danson told the audience at History Talks in Philadelphia, according to Variety.
“Bill—Mr. President—took me around the corner, and there were three Secret Service agents behind him, all of them looking at me. The president asked me what my intentions were.”
While on the panel on Saturday, Danson asked Clinton, “My first question is to you, Mr. President: Do you think that was fair?”
The former president replied, “No, but it was effective. And I didn’t think I had to be fair. As it turned out, you became the best thing that ever happened to her.”
Danson shared a version of the story back in 2014, saying it was a “come-meet-my-friend’s-date-for-approval kinda moment.”
“(I’m) in the White House you know with some Secret Service behind checking me out, so it was a smidge intimidating, except they’re so sweet.”
Clinton walked Steenburgen down the aisle at her October 1995 wedding to Danson at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
“They were best friends and, I mean, he gave her away at our wedding,” Danson said in 2013. “It’s hard to believe still to me sometimes how close we all are, because it sounds kind of pretentious, but they are best friends—I mean, I watched her give him a ‘noogie’ in The Oval Office.”
Danson and Steenburgen have lectured at the Clinton School of Public Service and they publicly supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008.
Steenburgen praised Hillary during a speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2016.
“I’ve been blessed to call Hillary Clinton one of my closest friends since 1978,” Steenburgen said.
“That is a whole lot of life. How would I describe her? Loves to laugh, especially at herself. World class listener. Quick to forgive. Sensitive. Empathetic. But like her mother, Dorothy, if she gets knocked down seven times, she will get up eight.”
Recalling Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016 in an interview two years later, Danson said it was hard to watch from up close.
“It’s difficult to put distance and spin on my emotions. We were there that night and it was a slow-motion–from my perspective–car wreck. It was beyond belief," he said.
“I will put spin on it: it is what it is, and here we are. A lot of what I believe in is not what this administration believes in.”
