Adorable Photos of Nicole Ari Parker & Boris Kodjoe

"She's drop-dead, smashingly gorgeous and sexy," Kodjoe told PEOPLE of his wife in 2019. "It's the truth. She's inelligent. She's confident. The fact that she's so comfortable with who she is, that to me is everything."

Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker wed in 2005, after costarring on Showtime's Soul Food for years prior. In 2014, the German actor gave PEOPLE some of his best marriage advice.

"Remember when you used to date before you got married — [treat] your wife like she's still your girlfriend," he said. "You have to water the plant every day, not just once a week. [Give her] surprises, little gifts, notes, texts, flowers. Just little things, but do them consistently."

"I've seen people stutter when they talk to him," Parker told PEOPLE in 2002, when Kodjoe, a former model, was named one of the magazine's 50 most beautiful. "He calms them with his looming, peaceful presence."

Daughter Sophie joined the family on March 5, 2005, two months before the couple tied the knot. Eighteen months later, son Nicholas (pictured) was born.

"They're good kids so far," Parker told PEOPLE in 2022. "We're lucky."

In that same 2019 chat, Parker said of her husband, "He's devestatingly handsome. But he is the rare human that is literally one of the goodest people I know. When it says goodest in the dictionary — it's not a word — it shows [his] picture. He's exactly who his persona is, kind, loves being a husband and father. An incredible human being who thinks of others. He's just authentically good."

"I am proud of her abillity to cherish her journey," Kodjoe told PEOPLE in 2022. "To be so accomplished as her and still be able to be present and take this journey day by day, and pull so much purpose and fulfillment out of each experience. That takes a whole lot."

Speaking to PEOPLE in 2019 for The Beautiful Issue, Kodjoe said, "To me, my family is beautiful because everyone is kind. They're compassionate, they're considerate ... and they don't talk back to me!"

"She's one of the most present people you will ever meet in your life," Kodjoe said of his wife in a 2022 interview with PEOPLE. "She doesn't hide anything about what she feels."

"He is totally a king," Parker told PEOPLE in 2022. "Something I've always loved about him and his work ethic is his diligence. He literally doesn't give up."

"I count my blessings every day," Kodjoe told PEOPLE in 2004. "I really have to pinch myself every once in a while. It's like, 'Wow! This is really my life.' "

"Once you become a parent, you're introduced to a whole new level of emotion," Kodjoe told PEOPLE in 2007. "I want to do well and conquer the world for them, like Superman. It's as if a whole new chamber in my heart has opened up."

Of directing his wife in the upcoming Lifetime series Safe Room, Kodjoe joked to PEOPLE, "It was great that the tables were turned for once, because usually she directs me. This time I got to tell her what to do."

"I'm glad my kids have him as a dad," Parker told PEOPLE in 2022.

Parker told PEOPLE that the couple keeps their cool by communicating constantly. "Every marital spat, every parental issue, we're all so busy we're focused on solutions, and healing, not holding on to things for too long," she said. "Especially now, with the world and the environment, it's like, let's just get to the good place."

Of their PDA on the And Just Like That ... red carpet in N.Y.C. last month, the pair joked that not seeing each other much because of work schedules lets them "save the spark," Kodjoe said. "And when we see each other, we let it out."