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Ray Romano opened up to PEOPLE about the parallels between his real marriage to Anna Scarpulla and his on-screen relationship with Patricia Heaton in Everybody Loves Raymond
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“My wife would watch the show and she loved it when Patricia [Heaton] would call me on my crap because she did,” Romano joked
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Everybody Loves Raymond starred Romano and Heaton as husband-and-wife duo Ray and Debra Barone
Ray Romano’s wife let his TV wife do the talking.
The actor and comedian, 67, opened up to PEOPLE about the parallels between his real marriage to Anna Scarpulla and his on-screen relationship with Patricia Heaton in Everybody Loves Raymond at the Paley Center’s 30th anniversary celebration of the hit sitcom on Monday, June 16, in New York City.
“My wife would watch the show and she loved it when Patricia [Heaton] would call me on my crap because she did,” Romano joked of his wife Scarpulla, with whom he shares four kids. “We were watching a scene once, my wife and I, we were in bed watching it, and she watched a scene with me and Patty and she said, ‘You just talked to her in that scene more than you’ve talked to me the whole week.’ And I told her, ‘Well, we have writers though. They write for me.’ “
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Anna Romano and Ray Romano at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party
The actor continued to share how his personal life played a role in the show. “I brought everything from my life to the show just like [show creator] Phil [Rosenthal] did, and we would write those stories. I think Patty was in love and as frustrated with her husband as much as her character was on the show with me,” he said.
Monday’s event was part of The Paley Museum’s PaleyLive series and saw star and producer Romano, show creator Phil Rosenthal, executive producer and writer Tom Caltabiano and more reunite to celebrate the milestone anniversary in a panel moderated by Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall.
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Patricia Heaton and Ray Romano attend the 30 Years of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’: An Evening with the Legends of the Classic Sitcom event at The Paley Center on June 16, 2025 in New York City
Romano also told PEOPLE on the red carpet about how the popular show, which aired for nine seasons from 1996 to 2005, changed his life.
“I was a working stand-up comic before the show and I was making a living doing stand up. Let me just say this, I love doing stand up. I’m passionate about it. I still am,” he said. “But I had three kids at the time and I thought, if there’s another level, maybe it’ll happen now. It was 11 years into my stand-up career and it wasn’t really happening.”
He recalled appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman where he was then “signed to a deal to develop the show.”
“And here we are,” Romano continued. “[Everybody Loves Raymond] changed my life. It changed my family’s life. I’ve made such great friends. It changed my career. I’ve gotten from that show to continue acting and to work with [Martin] Scorsese. What’s happening? That can’t be right.”
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Ray Romano at the Paley Center event
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Everybody Loves Raymond starred Romano and Heaton as husband-and-wife duo Ray and Debra Barone, who shared a daughter and two sons. Their family dynamic was explored in each episode, oftentimes with appearances from other relatives, including Ray’s parents (the late Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts) and brother (Brad Garrett).
Heaton also told PEOPLE about her special relationship with Romano that led to the creation of one of the most popular TV families.
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Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton in ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ in 1996
“We have this wonderful relationship. Whatever was happening in the writers’ lives at home, they would write stories about that,” Heaton, 67, said. “And so it was like that with all of us. I’d get a script and it would be just what I was going through at home with my husband.”
She continued to share a moment where the lines between fiction and reality were blurred in 2004.
“I remember there was one time Ray was going to do a movie with Gene Hackman called Welcome to Mooseport and there was a wonderful actress who was playing his love interest,” Heaton said of Maura Tierney. “I remember thinking, ‘I think I’m jealous of that actress. He’s cheating on me.’ So that was sort of the closest I think it got to having a husband-wife relationship.”
Read the original article on People
