KUALA LUMPUR: Actor Esma Daniel, 55, described his third marriage with bank employee Nur Atira Mazlan, 32, as being in a state of equilibrium in light of their considerable age difference.
Esma, whose full name is Esma Daniel Md Isa, said he was grateful to be blessed with a younger and understanding partner, where both could make things easier for each other.
"If there are things that don't match up, I'm better at being patient and will simplify things along the way. In the past, when I was young, I might be quick-tempered and not think things through.
"This time it's balanced because there's a young person and an older person. You have to understand how the young person thinks, and how the old does. If we're the same age, there's a risk too," he said.
After two previous failed marriages, Esma admitted that it was not easy for him to tie the knot again. However, he said that trusting a companion was of utmost importance.
"For me, the faithful feeling of a marriage does take time. I've been alone for a long time. I like married life, I have felt its blessings before. Suddenly that disappeared from my life.
"In starting a new household together, we want to be more careful. I'm not saying this is the last, nor that it will fail. We can only plan.
"When we get old, we have to have a companion. Especially with what had happened in my life, there's nothing that she doesn't know about me," he said, who suffered a stroke in November last year.
Esma and Atira tied the knot in May last year after several years of having a relationship.
They met online during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Previously, Esma was married to actress Sherie Merlis in 1992 and was blessed with two children before divorcing in 1997.
He later married Nitra Sari Omar in 2002, but divorced in 2016.
As a result of the marriage, Esma and Nitra were blessed with six children.