Yannick Bisson knows when he has a good thing going — 19 seasons later, he remains the star of Canada’s most-watched scripted series, Murdoch Mysteries. And this year, he also celebrates 35 years of marriage with his wife, Shantelle. Here, they give us the details of their whirlwind romance.
How they met
Yannick: I visited my good friend Bruce Gaunt’s high school in Scarborough, and Shantelle was performing at some of the school shows there. I immediately took notice. Years later, I ended up at a Pepsi audition and in waltzes Shantelle. Turns out we were at the same agency, and we were slotted to go in and read together. And the icing on the cake was that we were supposed to play boyfriend and girlfriend, and we were supposed to kiss. So we kissed and we did this audition together! Moral of the story is I didn’t get the commercial, but I got the girl.
The first date
Two days later I asked her out. I almost blew it though. The day of the date, I waited too long to call her and confirm the place.
Shantelle: He called me a half hour after we were supposed to be on our date!
Yannick: I told her to head down to Yorkville to Remys, and we had a beautiful dinner there. My two roommates there made it a special night. They served us alcohol even though we were underage.
The proposal
Shantelle: We moved in together really fast, and for my 19th birthday, he bought me a one carat diamond ring, but just as a gift. And a few months later, I said, “I missed my period, we should probably get a pregnancy test.” So I did it, and it turned positive. And Yannick goes, “OK, well, I want to marry you.” I was, like: “Pump the brakes, we barely know each other!” We thought about it, and ultimately decided to keep what is now our eldest of three daughters. We got very lucky that we were completely aligned in how we wanted to raise kids.
Yannick: This all leads up to a not so great story, which was, we were on the 401 on one of those snowy, terrible days, and I kind of just said [holding the ring], “You know what, babe, fine, here it is.” That was my proposal.
The wedding
Yannick: We knew we wanted the party to be the big thing, but we didn’t have money, so we had a Legion Hall–type wedding. And our daughter, when we got married, was 14 months, so she was our mini flower girl. We had a prime rib dinner and a DJ and all our close people and family, and it was just a great party. We went to a Caribbean island for our honeymoon, and it was just not great. I didn’t know how to book these things. Our room was awful. Shantelle cried; she called her mom! Needless to say, we have had some outstanding vacations to make up for it.
The kids
Shantelle: We have three daughters, and I would say my favourite memories of having kids was that we taught them to have a sense of adventure. I think they got that from Yannick, because I didn’t really grow up adventurous, but that’s always been one of his mottos. And now all three girls are very creative people and just do their own thing. I would say the best thing about being a parent is just sharing life with them.
The secret to success
Yannick: Chances are you’re always wrong, and she’s always right, and even if that’s not true, life will go a lot better if it is. And always buy more flowers than you think you should.
Shantelle: We’re not alike, but we’re still able to compromise and bend. It’s interesting to me that so often people will compromise in their work relationships, but somehow they feel like they have to win at home. If you’re out to win, you’ll always lose.
The future together
Shantelle: Lots of travel. We have so many places we want to check off the list. We also have a big dream about having a chateau in the south of France, a mountain house for skiing. And we’re hopeful for more grandbabies.
