Getty,Courtesy of Linda Purl/Instagram
Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl Share New Photo From the Holidays: ‘May the Spirit Prevail in 2025’
Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl gave their fans some major cheer with a new photo from their 2024 holiday celebrations.
Linda, 69, shared an Instagram post on January 4, showing off the couple sitting on their sofa with Patrick, 75, holding a tray of brightly frosted cookies. Their Christmas tree with colorful ornaments and lights could be seen behind them.
The Happy Days alum looked dressed for the holidays in a black sweater with shoulder cutouts and pearl beading, while the Dallas actor was more casual, donning a slightly unbuttoned white shirt with a gray T-shirt underneath. Both wore colorful paper crowns on their heads.
Linda hinted that the decorations had since come down and the photo was taken over the holidays the couple spent together. In the caption she wrote, “Boo hoo…Christmas put away for another year. May the spirit prevail in 2025!”
Many fans wished the pair a Happy New Year while others gushed over Patrick and Linda’s romance. One follower wrote, “You two are the most adorablist!” while another added, “You two are so cute! It is wonderful that you found each other! Happy New Year! ”
Ever since the pair began dating in 2020, Patrick and Linda’s fans have been cheering on how they found love later in life.
The Step by Step alum was married to wife Carlyn Rosser for 43 years, from 1974 until her death in 2017 at age 77. The duo shared sons Padraic and Conor.
Two years after his wife’s death, Patrick still wasn’t interested in dating. “I feel close to her all the time, [but] what I miss most is her touch,” he exclusively told Closer in 2019. “I still consider myself a married man.”
“It was a surprise when she passed. There was no indication. So that was the big adjustment,” he admitted. “My boys were there as stalwarts. But I also realized that, as much as they were trying to buttress old Dad up, I’m probably more adjusted to this set of circumstances than they are. You reach a certain age and you realize the road ahead is much shorter than the road behind.”
Things changed for Patrick during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, when he ended up on a group text chain with Linda, whom he’d casually known over the years as a friend after being introduced by mutual pal Richard Thomas in 2000.
Soon it was just Patrick and Linda talking. The pair “went from chatty and fun until, after a few months, it moved to a deeper level,” the Mighty Joe Young star told Senior Planet. Even though they were both in quarantine, Patrick lived in Oregon, while Linda lived in Colorado.
“I loaded up my car and drove 20 hours and ended up on her doorstep just to see if it was real,” Patrick told People in November 2020. “We haven’t been apart since.”
Patrick revealed to Senior Planet he was the first to say he was in love. He told the outlet that one night as they were saying their goodbyes via Zoom, “As we were signing off, I said, ‘Sleep tight, I love you.’ I pushed the off button and went, ‘Oh my god. I said the L-word!’”
“It’s thrilling to pull someone into the weave of your life at this stage,” Linda exclusively told Closer in September 2024 of their romance. “After all, we’re not in our 20s.”
“The coming-together is easier now,” Linda continued. “We’re not building our careers. We’re not still trying to figure out what our real interests, desires and values are. Those are, for better or worse, already established.”
The couple discovered their lives meshed pretty perfectly. “There were not many surprises,” said Patrick, who explained that it helped to have had so many deep conversations during the COVID lockdown. “Blending our lives together was 90 percent seamless,” he said. “People say this all the time, but it felt like we’d been together 40 years.”
The couple continue to split their time between Patrick’s Oregon ranch and Linda’s Colorado home.
While the question of marriage remained up in the air, Linda gushed, “In many ways, we already feel married.”
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