Alan Ritchson is a loving husband to his wife of nearly 20 years, Catherine Ritchson.

The Reacher actor met his future wife while attending high school in Florida. He was 17 and Catherine was 16 at the time.

During a September 2023 appearance on “The Road to Wisdom” podcast, Catherine confirmed their paths crossed during a dance class.

“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. “He, at some point, came up to me and we just got chatting.”

However, Alan broke up with her at the end of their first summer together because he thought it was just a “fling.” Catherine joked she made him “pay for it ever since.”

“He still justifies it. He’s like, ‘You lived 30 minutes away, I couldn’t afford gas,'” she continued.

A few years later, they reconnected through a mutual friend while she was studying at the University of Florida. Catherine said “[the rest is] history after then.”

Alan and Catherine exchanged vows on May 12, 2006, and have since welcomed three children.

Alan and Catherine became first-time parents when they welcomed their first son, Calem Ritchson, on September 19, 2012. His name means “dove” in Latin, which inspired the patriarch to have the symbol tattooed on his forearm in 2023.

The couple’s second child, Edan Ritchson, was born in 2013.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alan confirmed he has an abstract flame ink in honor of Edan.

Explaining his decision to get tattoos, he told the outlet, “Tattoos, I realized, are very much an opportunity for me to tell my story and the things that matter most to me: family, the story of my wife and our connection, what loyalty means to me, faith.”

“But this right here is as close as I’ll get to a personal identity,” he continued. “It has a dual meaning for me in the extremes — the happy, the sad, the ups and the downs — as somebody who lives with bipolar and ADHD on a daily basis. Being bipolar has wreaked havoc on my life many, many times. I would wish it away if I could, but it’s so much a part of who I am now that I should celebrate it a little or, at least, accept it.”

On December 6, 2015, Alan and Catherine’s third child, Amory Tristan, was born.

“Love you Amory. Say hi to a world in need of more joy, innocence and love, like you,” the Blue Mountain State star wrote.

In 2023, he paid homage to Amory with a sword and shield tattoo