'NCIS: New Orleans' finally reunites Pride and Rita: A look at Scott Bakula and Chelsea Field's 20-year marriage
Spoilers for 'NCIS: New Orleans' Season 12 Episode 2 'Something in the Air' Part 2
It's an exciting day for fans of NCIS: New Orleans, and the show's lead character Dwayne Pride too. In fact, both are celebrating the same occasion -- Pride's long time love interest Rita has finally moved back to New Orleans to be with her man. And although quarantine norms in the sow's early-Covid era timeline mandate them spending time apart, this reunion has been a long time coming. But while a whole chunk of fans are celebrating the adorable reunion between the two characters on screen, others are pretty much freaking out over just finding out that Pride and Rita are married in real life. Did you know Scott Bakula and Chelsea Fields have been married for a whopping 20 years? Well, it's never too late to find out.
Field, who had made her acting debut in a 1984 episode of the TV series 'Gitter', has been a recurring character on Bakula's very popular CBS procedural. The actress is known for her works in 'Perfect, 'Nightingales, 'Thirtysomething', 'Capital News' and the original 'NCIS'. However, long before their work on 'NCIS: New Orleans', the two had met all the way in 1993 for the first time, while filming the movie 'Passion to Kill' together.
Two years later, Field gave birth to the couple's first child Wil, and soon another son, Owen arrived in 1999. After dating for 15 years, Bakula and Field finally tied the knot in 2009. Bakula, who had been married once before, got divorced in 1995. His first wife was Krista Neumann, whom he married in 1981, and together they share two children - Chelsy and Cody.
Usually a private man, Bakula doesn't do a lot of interviews, but he stayed away from them specifically the year Wil was born. His first-ever interview with Field was in 1996 after they had already been together for a while. In the recent past, however, Bakula has opened up more candidly about what it's like to work alongside his wife. Labeling it as one of the highlights of working on NCIS: New Orleans, Bakula told Rachel Ray on her talk show “I love working with her. We worked together a bunch before. She makes me a better actor because she works more intensely and more deeply than I tend to work.” To the host's remarks about Bakla making this sound like the best job on the planet, he replied, “It is. When you’re working with your wife it’s pretty fantastic.”
When Bakula met his first wife Neuman, he was soaring off the high of his recent success from the role of a series regular on 'Quantum Leap'. In an interview with People magazine, he opened up about the way his career's success sort of sidetracked his first marriage, and he significantly regrets missing out on Chelsy and Cody's early years. But things changed when he joined the cast of 'Star Trek: Enterprise' in 2001. Bakula, deciding to put his family first, gave CBS strict deadlines about being home in time to send quality time and do it right this time. “I had it put in my contract that I would be done every Wednesday at 6 so I could be home for dinner,” he told “People.”
Bakula went on to be an ideal dad, carving out time to be involved as a coach in his son's sports practices, and we see the same chemistry and equal level of investment in the bond Pride shares with Rita. No wonder fans are thrilled; have you seen how couple goals these two are in real life?