Doesn't matter if it's 1 year, 10 years or 18 years, it's not required so one

[theking]

...should always do what's right for him/her  :

Iconic Acting Couple Reveals Why They're Not Married After 18-Year Relationship

While cohosting TODAY With Jenna & Friends alongside Jenna Bush Hager on Monday, June 16, Bibb, 51, discussed an article she read on the rise of women choosing not to marry their partners.

"Listen, you’re speaking to the choir," Bibb told Hager. "I love Sam Rockwell, I would put him in my pocket and carry him with me all the time, I love him. I do not want to get married."

"I feel like we are married." Bibb added.

Hager then asked Bibb whether Rockwell, 56, wanted to marry Bibb in the beginning of their relationship, which began 18 years ago after the couple met in October 2007 while at the famed Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, California. Rockwell was filming Frost/Nixon at the time while Bibb was waiting to dine with friends.

"No … and then he would annoy the crap out of me because he was like, 'Really? You don’t want to get married?'" The White Lotus actress responded. "I was like, 'Stop saying it, I already said I don’t want to marry you. Stop asking me like I’m going to pull, like, a sneak on you.' But he didn’t want it either,"

"I mean, I don’t know, maybe it’s probably something about the way we grew up but I feel like, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." Bibb continued.

Hager, a married mother of three, offered her own thoughts on the topic.

"You can still have a fulfilling, long relationship," she said — to which Bibb agreed "100 percent." Hager then asked Bibb if she wanted children of her own.

"No, I just don’t have that chip in me," she answered. "One woman said to me, 'You’re not a real woman unless you have a kid and I was, like, 'OK, you don’t know the reason … if I can’t have kids, if I don’t want kids.' I think being a mother is an amazing aspect of being a woman and I really think it’s the hardest job and what women do, the balance … it’s just not in me."

Since beginning their relationship, the couple has appeared in a series of films and television shows together, including Iron Man 2, Don Verdean and The Dark of Night. Recently, the two starred together in season 3 of The White Lotus, which saw Rockwell appear in a recurring cameo role opposite Bibb, who had a leading part.

[theking]

I personally know folks that have been together for over 30 years and never married. And some of them do better in life than some of the married folks I also personally know.

They love each other more and are more responsible by raising their kids better such as being able to keep their kids out of trouble and guide them til they graduated from college and landed good jobs and such.

A marriage license is just a piece of paper so what really matters is their love and devotion for each other.