How We Make Our Marriage Work With Four Kids and a Business featuring Larry & Jessica Hagner

Larry is back with his wife Jessica for the third installment of their Friday couples series, and this one tackles the quiet killer of long marriages: the drift. That slow slide where you get so buried in kids, sports, work, and the house that you look up years later and realize you lost each other somewhere along the way. Married 22 years, they're honest that they've hit those valleys too, and this episode is about how they catch it and climb back out.

Larry opens up about being the avoidant one early on, walking away from hard conversations because it felt selfless when it was actually disconnecting. From there he and Jessica map the exact tools that interrupt the drift: telling your partner what's in your head so they don't assume it's them, the six-second hug that resets everything, the safety that lets you give hard feedback, and the certainty of saying "I need an hour, but I'll be back." If your marriage feels more like two ships passing in the night, this is a practical way back to each other.

Timeline Summary

[1:01] – Spinning in different orbits and what it means to interrupt the drift

[2:03] – Jessica's first solo episode goes live and the nerves around it

[3:47] – How couples drift: five years pass and the connection is just gone

[5:05] – Larry owning that he was the avoidant one who'd walk away or sleep downstairs

[6:32] – Why walking away felt selfless but was actually selfish and disconnecting

[6:50] – Jessica's ask: take your space, but tell me it's not about me and you'll be back

[7:39] – The neighbor at the fire pit and the garage door scam that sent him inward

[9:49] – What's really happening in a man's head: the shoulds that make it worse

[11:01] – The real-world date day where Larry chose to say "actually, that's a lie, I'm challenged"