Who Is Steven Spielberg's Wife? All About Kate Capshaw

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Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw have one of the longest-standing relationships in Hollywood.

The famed director first met his future wife in the early '80s when she was cast in his film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In the years that followed, the pair blended their families, tied the knot and welcomed five children together.

"Steven and I are partners, and our life together is our production, so to speak," Capshaw told The Spokesman-Review in February 1995. "If I want to do something that affects that production, I want to have his support. If he doesn't understand the piece, then I have to help explain it. Sometimes, in explaining it, I realize I don't understand it. Then everybody's saved a lot of work."

The couple have been together for more than three decades, during which Capshaw has largely stepped away from the limelight to focus on their family.

"He operates his jet — a camera and a story. My jet is the family," she said during the same 1995 interview. "I might not be comfortable pushing the limits in film the way he does, and he might not be as comfortable pushing the limits of our family. But I get to be the frontierswoman here, and he gets to be the frontiersman there."

So, who is the woman who stole the iconic director's heart all those years ago? Keep reading to learn more about Kate Capshaw and her relationship with Steven Spielberg.

She was a teacher

Before she became an actress, Capshaw was a special education teacher in Missouri. She told The Spokesman-Review, "I think my interest in special education was prompted by some instinctual knowledge that we were all very different, that we all had special needs."

She added, "I still have those images with our children. I look at them very differently. There are house rules that you have to follow — it doesn't matter how unique you are. But within that, there's room for each child to be who he or she is."

Capshaw told Entertainment Tonight in 1984 that she left teaching because it wasn't "stimulating."

She was married before

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Capshaw married school principal Robert "Bob" Capshaw, with whom she shares daughter Jessica Capshaw, in 1976. The family moved to New York City in 1978, and Kate began modeling shortly afterward.

She began acting after her divorce

After she divorced from her first husband in 1980, Capshaw took voice and acting lessons, keeping her ex's last name to use professionally in her stage and screen pursuits.

Capshaw later recalled during her interview with Entertainment Tonight that she had a friend who was a talent agent in N.Y.C. at the time, but that her pal refused to represent her and instead suggested that she go back to school. Though she was just 27 years old at the time, Capshaw's friend claimed that she was too old to get good roles.

She got her big break from Spielberg

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Capshaw had a few screen credits to her name in 1983, but it was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that would make her a major star. Spielberg reportedly had trouble finding a woman to play alongside Harrison Ford in the Raiders of the Lost Ark prequel, and talent agent Peter Meyers suggested Capshaw. She met with Spielberg twice, and after taking a screentest, was quickly cast as Willie Scott.

Capshaw later said the action-packed movie wasn't necessarily what she expected from an acting career, telling Entertainment Tonight, "You don't become an actress so you can run, jump and flee. You become an actress so you can talk and be involved in dialogue."

Still, she enjoyed the experience. Capshaw told PM Magazine that she loved Ford's dry sense of humor and appreciated that the cast and crew weren't bothered by her relative inexperience.

"One thing that was really lovely is that nobody made me feel bad for being afraid," she said. "They didn't go, 'Oh gosh, she's being a girl.' In these movies, the girl always gets the worst stuff. An action-adventure movie is always difficult by nature because there's a sense of urgency. I call them 'whoosh' movies." She added, "You start out and you just whoosh your way through to the end."

Spielberg and Capshaw married after two years of dating

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Spielberg's first wife was actress and singer Amy Irving, with whom he shares son Max. Irving and Spielberg amicably split in 1989. He and Capshaw reportedly moved in together that same year after becoming close following Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

In 1990, Capshaw and Spielberg welcomed their first daughter, Sasha, and adopted a son, Theo, whom Capshaw had been fostering. Capshaw then converted to Judaism, as did her and Spielberg's children, and she and Spielberg tied the knot in October 1991. They've since welcomed three more children: son Sawyer and daughters Mikaela and Destry.

She doesn't think being "Mrs. Spielberg" hurt or helped her career

Capshaw said her acting career was "neither hurt nor helped by being Mrs. Steven Spielberg." She did note, however, that her marriage to the legendary director influenced some of the projects she took on because not every filmmaker wanted Spielberg's input on their work.

"If someone is so insecure that it would be frightening to them to have Steven read a page of their script or hear the experiences of the set or watch the experiences, if that's threatening, that is a ticket to disaster," she told The Spokesman-Review. "A director has to be confident. The people I've worked with are thrilled to share the making of the movie with Steven, who is one of the more generous directors in the community we live in. He's quiet, he sits back, he doesn't answer a question unless a question's been asked. You feel his support."

She and Spielberg collaborated on a music video

Spielberg has only directed one music video in his storied career: "Cannibal" by Marcus Mumford, frontman of the band Mumford & Sons. Capshaw served as a producer and art director of the video (and is also credited jokingly as a dolly grip), while Spielberg filmed all the "Cannibal" visuals in one shot on his cellphone in July 2022.

"On Sunday 3rd July in a high school gym in New York, Steven Spielberg directed his first music video, in one shot, on his phone. Kate Capshaw was the almighty dolly grip," Mumford tweeted about the project. "I've been overwhelmed by the support of the people around me to bring this music to you, and I cannot hope to express all of my gratitude. When people get it, it blows my mind. Kate and Steven just got it, and I cannot thank them enough."

She influences Spielberg's career

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Capshaw influenced Spielberg's filmmaking in a big way: he won't do comedies. Spielberg revealed that he almost signed on to direct the raunchy hit comedy Meet the Parents — until Capshaw talked him out of it.

"My wife says I'm not funny enough! I was preparing to direct Meet The Parents when she read the script," he told Total Film in 2004. "She said, 'You're not directing this movie — give it to a director who does comedy well.' She doesn't mind when I have comic moments in my movies, like when Tom Cruise chases his eyeballs towards a drain in Minority Report, but I'm not allowed to do an outright comedy! Still, I produced Meet The Parents and we did very well with it."