“Found”’s Shanola Hampton Shares Secret to 29-Year Romance with Husband Daren Dukes: ‘I’m His Biggest Fan’ (Exclusive)

"I really feel as though Daren was meant to be my partner," the actress tells PEOPLE

Shanola Hampton and Daren Dukes have a love that's lasted for nearly three decades.

The two stars — she, an actor currently leading NBC's hit procedural Found and he, known to many as sports commentator on The Dallas Cowboy Show — dated for five years before tying the knot in March 2000. And while anyone who's been in one knows that relationships aren't always easy, for Hampton, the secret to a long marriage is much simpler than one thinks.

"Look, I don't know what the formula is, but I do know this: you have to like the person, even when you don't like what they're doing," Hampton, 47, tells PEOPLE, in this week's issue. "There are going to be times where you're frustrated by your partner for one reason or the next. But that never stops you from wanting to be around that person."

She adds, "I'm his biggest fan, and I know he's mine. And that's what we all both [go] back to at the end of the day."

Related: Shanola Hampton Talks Taking Risks in Found: ‘I Won’t Be Put in a Box’ (Exclusive)

Hampton and Dukes first met in 1995, when she was a freshman at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. "I was 18 and we were two of the four people of color in the theater department," Hampton says. "You've heard of gangster love? That's theater love!"

Over the years, the couple have remained by one another's side as they navigated their careers and built their family, with 10-year-old daughter Cai MyAnna and 8-year-old son Daren O.C.

"He's my best friend," Hampton gushes of Dukes. "If I wasn't with him as my husband, I would still be like, 'This is such a cool dude that you just want to be around.' Because he has this quality about him that's just grabs you."

"If you ask me what I like about my husband, I'm going to give you an essay of 1,000 pages," she says. "He's so funny and handsome and smart and talented. And he has such diverse interests. Like, he loves football, but he's also an artist and knows crazy facts about everything. I'm Real Housewives, he's Jeopardy!, and what's up there in his brain always just blows me away. There's just no one else like him."

The feeling is clearly mutual for Dukes, who has called Hampton, "simply the most incredible human being that I have ever met" on Instagram. "You are as special as they come, and I’m as lucky as one can be," he wrote in a birthday post to her.

Each gives one another the support that they need, Hampton says.

"I really feel as though Daren was meant to be my partner," shares Hampton. "He's just so secure in who he is. He worked as an actor for a long time, and is still one of the best actors that I know, but going down this entertainment thing wasn't his path. And yet, he's there supporting me without any jealousy or guilt. He could give two cracks whether y'all push him aside on the red carpet, or not. He doesn't care. He doesn't have that ego."

"Being an actor can be hard on a partner," she continues. "There are times I'm on set nearly all day. And he holds down the fort with two kids, three dogs and no nanny. Just lets me shine without the stress. I feel so lucky to have him. He's my biggest cheerleader."

But Dukes is also the Dallas Cowboys' biggest cheerleader.

Over the years, the 52-year-old Cowboys superfan (known to those online as Shango) has built a dedicated following on his social media, where he his passionate post-game rants have become the thing of legend. One of them, a viral tirade after a 2012 game against the Seattle Seahawks, was even sampled in Kendrick Lamar's 2022 single, “Mr. Morale.”

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Hampton couldn't be prouder, even if she admits that she's not a Cowboys fan herself.

"When I first met Daren, he told me 'maybe you'll outlive the Cowboys things' and I have yet to do that,' " she laughs. "But I just love it. And you would think, 'Oh he's putting it on' — I am here to tell you, I have been with this man since 1995 and those rans are 100% real. He had that presence way before it was cool to be a YouTuber."

For more on Shanola Hampton, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

"He's really, really into it. And that's what I'm talking about when I say liking them even if you don't like what they're doing," Hampton says. "I'm not into football like that, but he's got passion! He's spirited! In the house, we don't even know whether his team is winning or losing half the time, we just know he's yelling. And I just love that about him."

Found airs Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Episodes can also can be streamed on Peacock.

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