Entertainment Movies Mark Hamill Celebrates 44th Wedding Anniversary with Adorable Throwback Ceremony Picture "Thank you for saying 'yes' 🙏," the Star Wars icon wrote to his wife on Instagram Saturday to mark the milestone By Shafiq Najib Shafiq Najib Shafiq Najib is a former writer-reporter at PEOPLE. He left PEOPLE in 2023. People Editorial Guidelines Published on December 18, 2022 04:39PM EST Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty for Disney Mark Hamill is honoring his wife Marilou Hamill for their 44th wedding anniversary. To celebrate the big milestone in their marriage on Saturday, the Star Wars icon shared an adorable throwback picture of himself and his wife from their nuptials over four decades ago and penned a sweet tribute in the Instagram caption. "Celebrating our 44th Anniversary today. ❤️Thank you for saying 'yes' 🙏," wrote Mark, 71, who shares three children with Marilou including Nathan Elias, 43, Griffin Tobias, 39, and Chelsea Elizabeth, 34. Mark Hamill Goes Viral on Twitter for Tweeting His Own Name Joining the celebration, Chelsea also shared a series of throwback pictures of her parents during their younger years as a couple. "Happy Anniversary to these two. 💕💕💕," she captioned the post which Mark later shared on his Instagram Story. One snapshot shows a picture of the pair sharing a sweet embrace while gazing into each other's faces. A second picture features the pair walking alongside each other with big smiles on their faces as they were followed by a group of people. The Hamills tied the knot in December 1978 at their home in Malibu. In 1981, Mark and Marilou, 67 — who was a dental hygienist when she met her husband — gave PEOPLE insight into the early years of their relationship. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Their first date was a trip to the movies. "I took her to Annie Hall to see if she had a sense of humor. I dropped women if they didn't," Mark said at the time. They returned to the cinema to see a screening of Star Wars. "There was this one close-up of a minor character, curling his lips back from his teeth. She leaned over to me and whispered, 'Bad caps,' " he recalled. But Mark and Marilou called it quits as he became a household name. "I had to taste groupies and fame," he explained. "I went to Las Vegas to date 38-year-old showgirls. That was exciting for about the first 10 minutes. Eventually, I wanted something to hold onto — and a family." RELATED VIDEO: Mark Hamill Voices Yoda and the Joker While Entertaining Patients at Children's Hospital Los Angeles Marilou "kept busy" during their stretch apart, she said. "I ran my own life. But all the time I thought I was good for him, so I was hoping we'd get back together." Marilou opened up to Good Morning America in April 2018 about how she and Mark have kept their love strong in the spotlight. "We don't live in town, so we don't go in and do all the party circuits," she said at the time.