Jeff Bridges Fell for Waitress, Accepting Her with Facial Injuries — Years Later She Doesn’t Leave Him When Death Looms

• Jeff Bridges and his wife, Susan, are nearing their 46th year of marriage, which is a beautiful achievement! 😍🙏
• For Jeff, it was love at first sight despite Susan being a waitress and having a facial injury.
• Years later, Susan repaid Jeff’s love by staying by his side, even when death threatened to take him.

Jeff Bridges has been in the entertainment industry for over 60 years and has served as an American actor, producer, and singer. While shooting a hot tub scene for 1975’s “Rancho Deluxe” at Montana’s Chico Hot Springs, the star met his future wife, Susan “Sue” Geston.

When he saw the waitress, he couldn’t take his eyes off her with her broken nose and black eyes. The actor later learned that the woman got her injury recently after being involved in a car accident, but was still enthralled by her appearance.

Jeff recalled being riveted by “her beauty and disfigurement,” for him, it was “love at first sight.” Like a fascinated child, he kept sneaking peeks at her while shooting a scene, but each time she caught him in the act, with him confessing:

“I didn’t know what she was, a maid or a waitress; I couldn’t take my eyes off her.”

He thought she was gorgeous, and the contrast between her beauty and disfigurement interested him. After filming, “The Big Lebowski” star found the courage to approach her and ask for a date.

Susan hilariously refused but noted that it was possible they’d run into each other later because she lived in a small town. As fate would have it, the pair did, and they went out dancing, and the celebrity fell in love.

The actor had a meeting to see some property with a local real estate agent the next day, and he invited Susan. They saw a ranch house by the river, and that became their first date, and something told Jeff that he was looking at a home with his “future wife.”

The thought worried him, and he realized he couldn’t lose the love of his life, but he was also afraid of noting that she was the one for him! The star confessed that he was in love but worried if he and Susan had the staying power his parents had, with him saying:

“For a while, I was scared of getting married. It was like it brought me one step closer to death.”

Jeff felt like his cycle would be getting born, falling in love, getting married, having children, and then the end would be close. Luckily, he learned that fear was a part of life and made friends with it.

The celebrity admitted that his biggest fear was losing his freedom, but after two years of doubt, he proposed. He got around his worries because he could always ask for a divorce if things didn’t work.

However, he didn’t expect a future filled with a deeper bond with his wife, children, grandchildren, and other things unattainable when you’re not married. Although the move was scary for Jeff, his heart was deeply open.

In 2020, the actor, then 70, had been married to Susan for 43 years! He revealed that they were different people who went by with mutual respect, and they celebrated what made them opposites instead of allowing it to separate them.

The star said they’d survived so long because he respected her wisdom and noted that he was blessed. Jeff faced illnesses and more during their marriage, but he had the best person by his side to help him.

Jeff grew up close to his older brother, Beau, and his parents. He recalled how his mother would give him and his sibling “time,” whereby each child had an hour daily to do whatever they wanted with her.

Speaking about his children, the actor described them as his “real trophies.” He and Susan tied the knot in 1977 before welcoming their beautiful daughters Isabelle in 1981, then Jessica two years later, and Haley in 1985, whom he was grateful for.

The celebrity and his family were living fulfilling lives because he had all he could’ve wanted. The “Iron Man” star said he had to find the balance between photography, music, and his family, but to him, it all fell into place.

However, he also credited his wife for keeping things running smoothly. Sadly, the family’s peaceful life was disrupted in October 2020, during the COVID-19 quarantine, when they learned that Jeff had been diagnosed with cancer.

Taking to his Twitter to announce the news, he revealed he was diagnosed with Lymphoma but said the prognosis was promising. He vowed to start treatment and kept his fans updated on his recovery.

Susan recalled how numb they felt after getting the diagnosis, but she started supporting him by working on what needed to happen next. The actor started chemotherapy (chemo) by infusion before having oral chemo with his wife right by his side.

His children’s and wife’s support strengthened him to continue his treatment. In December 2020, Susan’s husband shared a Twitter photo of himself smiling while sporting a bald head and noted that he felt good.

The actor also mentioned getting a puppy, Monty (visible in the image), and celebrating his 71st birthday. He looked well when he wished his fans a Happy New Year for 2021 with a Facebook post of him, his wife, and Monty.

The star covered his shaved head with a red beret, matched in red and black clothes with his wife, and wished everyone would dream of a world where we would like to live in. Jeff hoped the dreams would come true through people’s actions.

In June 2019, Isabelle posted an Instagram throwback of his parents and confessed that she sometimes felt inadequate toward the couple. She said they were the “coolest people on the planet” before acknowledging that comparing herself to her parents wasn’t the best use of her time.

However, she celebrated them by saying she saw the pair as her role models, especially how they chased their dreams even when they felt they were far. By January 2021, a month after the star started chemo and his tumor had started shrinking; he got another knock.

The father of three and his wife were diagnosed with COVID-19, and they weren’t sure he’d recover. Things were so bad for the actor that Susan received a hospital call where they informed her that they might have to put her husband on a ventilator, and her response was:

“Save his life. No matter what you have to do.”

Luckily, the star didn’t need a ventilator but later admitted that he was close to dying, and doctors encouraged him to fight. Jeff was ready to transition and was in surrender, but with his wife by his side, he soldiered on!

The mother of three shared that her dream was to see her husband getting out of bed, walking, and living an everyday life. She believed he would reach those goals with the proper care, and he did!

In June 2022, Jeff appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and explained that he got his cancer diagnosis after going to a doctor while feeling pain. A CAT scan revealed a nine-by-12-inch mass in his stomach.

When the COVID-19 diagnosis came, Susan was hospitalized for five days, but the “Crazy Heart” star stayed for five weeks! The actor recalled being unable to breathe, and doctors kept saying they were doing their best.

However, he was ready to go and felt death was part of life. He started getting better when he pledged to dance with Hayley and walk her down the aisle at her wedding, and after recovering, he fulfilled that goal, leaving his wife joyful!

The “True Grit” actor was grateful for his life and back at work in May 2022. The celebrity spoke about how he now treasured life’s “simple pleasures” more, especially when spending quality time with his wife.

Susan hadn’t known that her husband would still experience those things and credited the months-long physical therapy Jeff got for the strides he’d made. Turning things to Susan, the actor was asked what it meant to him to have her named the Honored Mother at VNA Health’s 2012 Mother’s Day Luncheon.

The star said he was excited to have his wife recognized in that capacity. He noted how she’d cared for him, their children, her mother, and their grandchildren over the years. Jeff felt it meant a lot to see Susan acknowledged that way, and in June 2022, he was interviewed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” about battling cancer and COVID-19.

The star fully recovered and shared how he’d learned many things while fighting his diagnosis. The celebrity explained how having chemo stripped his body’s defenses, and he had nothing to fight COVID-19.

Jeff said COVID-19 made cancer “look like nothing,” revealing how he and Susan had ridden in an ambulance together to a hospital to get treatment. Isabelle’s mother also fully recovered, although she had a greater chance of survival than he did.

Having a loving wife by his side helped Jeff to recover from his ailments, and in 2023 he was looking forward to celebrating a significant milestone. The star was so in love with his wife that he kept a memento of their first meeting.

In 2022, Jeff was in remission from cancer and said Susan gave him the resolve to keep going. That year, the couple celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary, and he believed they were both in it for the long haul.

“The Old Man” star hilariously said he realized his family liked him “very much” when they showed support during his COVID-19 diagnosis. The actor was able to see life as a gift and acknowledged how short it was.

He saw his past struggles as challenges taken in class to teach him something, and being in the experience was the only way to learn. The celebrity said he learned how incredible love was as his battle heightened it.

Jeff said how he loved and was loved was accentuated, with Jimmy Kimmel noting how the actor was one of the most loved people in America! In the past, when he spoke about his wife, the actor said he’d learned a lot from her.

He credited her for pointing out his self-defeat and did the same for her. Whenever he doubted starting new projects, she reminded him it was his go-to reaction, and he acknowledged that.

Susan also showed her husband different perspectives; they both cared about one another, and their relationship was the most precious thing. However, the actor said he knew he would never know his wife in her entirety and vice versa, but every time they fought, they neared the realization that “not knowing” was their common factor.

Ten years after meeting his wife [Susan Geston], Jeff [Bridges] received a letter from the makeup artist for “Rancho Deluxe.”

The couple was comfortable with tough times as long as they were together. After 35 years of fighting it, when conflicts arose, Jeff felt it was great now that they got to love one another more.

Isabelle saw their marriage as an inspiration due to the pair loving, liking, and spending time with each other. She revealed that they made the time to ask questions about their interests, and despite her father’s fame, he said his family was his “greatest joy.”

Spending time with the people he loved was precious, and nothing was more prosperous. Jeff encompassed his Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski character so much that he insisted that his grandchildren call him “Dude-pa!”

However, his then-two-year-old granddaughter, Gracie, couldn’t pronounce it and hilariously called him “Doody!” Being an eternal optimist, the grandfather wasn’t too offended by it, and by 2022, the actor had several grandchildren, including a newborn who arrived that year.

Isabelle gave birth to her first child, Grace “Gracie” Louise Boesch, on March 31, 2011, and had a younger son, Ben, in 2020. Susan’s husband once revealed how much he loved her by confessing that he kept a memento of their first meeting, which was with him wherever he went.

Ten years after meeting his wife, Jeff received a letter from the makeup artist for “Rancho Deluxe.” The artist revealed he’d taken two images when the actor first spoke to Susan, and the star – looking forward to celebrating his 46th wedding anniversary in June 2023 – kept it in his wallet.