There's nothing more romantic after not seeing your husband for

The words of Deborra-Lee Furness—“There’s nothing more romantic after not seeing your husband for four months than to have our first night back together, on a Broadway stage, with 12 million people watching.”—are at once tender and mighty, playful and profound. Beneath the humor of her remark lies a truth about love, about separation, and about the paradox of intimacy lived before the eyes of the world. She speaks as one who has known the ache of absence and the joy of reunion, and who has learned that even the most personal of bonds can be tested and revealed in the most public of arenas.

When she names this moment romantic, she does not speak of candlelit solitude or hidden embraces, but of a love bold enough to be declared before millions. In her words, the Broadway stage becomes not just a place of art, but a temple where personal love meets public spectacle. This is a reminder that romance is not bound only to secrecy and softness; it can also be radiant, unashamed, and strong enough to shine under the fiercest lights. True affection is not weakened by exposure—it thrives even when magnified before countless eyes.

The origin of such a declaration lies in the age-old truth that distance sharpens love. Four months apart, for husband and wife, is not mere inconvenience but trial. Absence, though painful, tempers affection like fire hardens steel. And so their reunion upon that stage carried within it the weight of longing fulfilled, a joy made more powerful by its delay. Furness’s humor—acknowledging the oddity of such a reunion before “12 million people”—points to a deeper wisdom: that love, if true, adapts to circumstance, and finds romance even in the most unexpected places.

History offers us a parallel in the tale of Odysseus and Penelope. For twenty years they were parted—he upon the seas, she beset by suitors at home. When at last they were reunited, their love was not diminished but strengthened by the long trial of absence. Though no millions watched, their reunion is remembered across millennia, immortalized in Homer’s verse. Just as Furness and her husband found romance even in the glare of Broadway, so too did Odysseus and Penelope prove that love survives separation and returns with even greater force.

There is also in this story a reflection on the nature of public and private love. Many fear that love cannot survive the scrutiny of the crowd, that intimacy must always hide in secrecy. Yet Furness shows that love, when rooted in devotion, is unshakable, even when revealed before multitudes. To be able to laugh, to cherish, and to hold affection openly, is itself a triumph of the heart. For true romance is not about the setting, but about the bond—whether it unfolds in a quiet room or upon a stage before millions, its essence is unchanged.

The lesson here is clear: do not limit romance to narrow definitions. It is not only found in roses, in moonlight, in whispers. It is also found in the courage to stand together through trials, in the joy of reunion after absence, in the laughter shared even in the most unlikely circumstances. Romance is not fragile—it is adaptable, expansive, and powerful enough to appear where least expected.

Practically, this wisdom urges us to find romance in our own unusual moments. If distance keeps you from one you love, let patience deepen your bond. If life’s circumstances thrust your love into the public eye, let it be an opportunity to show the strength of your devotion. And if your reunions come not in perfect settings, but in hurried airports, crowded rooms, or even under the gaze of strangers, see them still as sacred. For romance is not in the perfection of place, but in the presence of love itself.

Thus, Deborra-Lee Furness’s words, spoken with humor, carry the weight of truth: that love, even when tested by absence and magnified by spectacle, can remain deeply romantic, fiercely human, and beautifully unashamed. Let this be the teaching we carry forward: that love finds its stage wherever the heart dares to shine.