Alan Ritchson‘s marriage to wife Catherine Ritchson has stood the test of time. They first met in high school during a ballet class and have been together ever since 2006. “I don’t know why she sticks around, dude. She deserves better,” Alan joked during a February 18, 2025, appearance on The Late Show while promoting season 3 of Reacher. Closer takes a deep dive into how Alan and Catherine met, what she does for a living and more.

Alan was 17 years old, and Catherine was 16 years old when they met in a Florida high school ballet class.

“I was in it for her and out as soon as we had it, we had it in the bag,” he joked on The Late Show about how the quit ballet as soon as they started dating.

Alan went on to explain how he was dually enrolled in college at the time while pursuing a degree in music theater. A prerequisite for the theater program was that he took dance classes, and it resulted in him meeting Catherine. “Anyway, we hit it off and long story short, now we have three kids,” he explained with a laugh.

According to Catherine, it wasn’t that simple, as they broke up and later reconnected.

“I’ll never forget seeing him for the first time in the [dance] studio. I turned to my friend Miriam, and I said, ‘Who is that?’ “ she recalled during a September 2023 appearance on “The Road to Wisdom” podcast. “He, at some point, came up to me and we just got chatting.”