Barbara Corcoran, 76, swears by having separate bedrooms from her husband. She says couples should try it — even in small spaces.
“Well, they could get separate beds. They could put a wall up. They could sleep on the convertible couch,” Corcoran told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Monday.
While she acknowledged that the setup won’t work for everyone, Corcoran said many people living in small apartments could make better use of the space they already have.
“I don’t really have a solution, but there’s a lot of New Yorkers who have two bedrooms and one set up as a den or TV room. I think that’s a misuse,” she said. “When I got my second bedroom, I immediately loved my husband twice as much.”
The “Shark Tank” host and her husband, retired Navy captain and FBI agent Bill Higgins, have been married since 1988.
For Corcoran, protecting her alone time is key, including in the mornings.
“I always wake up at 5 o’clock. I make myself some coffee, sit on my chair and daydream for an hour. I try to stay off my cellphone and I usually succeed,” she said.
Despite her busy schedule, the business mogul says she doesn’t work on Mondays.
“I take Mondays off, and I always have. I will not work on a Monday. On Friday, I leave all my commands, all my notes, little Post-it Notes on everybody’s machines. Or now, it’s a lot of email,” Corcoran said.
This isn’t the first time that Corcoran has shared her views on sleep divorce. In a December 2024 appearance on “The Jamie Kern Lima Show,” Corcoran described having separate bedrooms as one of the secrets to her successful marriage.
“Well, I think there’s something to be said about your own private space. Yes, I lead a very busy life. I have a huge family that I’m always entertaining. I have very sincere, active friends, and so what I need more than anything else is a respite, and my husband is not relaxing,” Corcoran told podcast host Jamie Kern Lima.
She added that it’s difficult for her to muster the energy at the end of the day to listen to him and contribute meaningfully to the conversation.
Moreover, she and her husband have rules for entering each other’s bedrooms. “I have to invite him into my bedroom, and I like it that way,” Corcoran said.
Many other celebrities have also spoken about sleeping separately from their spouses. Carson Daly has called sleep divorce the “best thing” for his marriage, while Bette Midler has said she and her husband of over 40 years have slept apart since the start of their relationship.
