Willie Aames' Spouse Winnie Hung Was His Pen Pal for 30 Years before Meeting Him

Publish date: 2024-05-17

Willie Aames' spouse, Winnie Hung, was a near-constant presence in the actor's turbulent life as a confidant and pen pal. The pair's friendship only turned romantic when they met in person years later.

In the eighties, teen heartthrob Willie Aames picked a letter out of his thousands of fan mail and gave the unsuspecting admirer a call. Winnie Hung initially hung up on him, but after the actor called back, they cultivated a platonic relationship that spanned decades.

The actor took many detours from his former Hollywood glory days but was on the path of getting control of his life when he finally met his longtime correspondent. They collaborated in a beautiful way to share their incredible love story.

Winnie Hung Was a Fan of Willie Aames' since She Was a Kid

Aames took his career from child star to teen idol with roles like Tommy Bradford on "Eight Is Enough" from 1977 to 1981 and as a sidekick, Buddy Lembeck, on "Charles in Charge" between 1984 and 1990.

The young actor did not take himself too seriously, regularly pulling pranks on set. He resented being manipulated, so he got his first big tattoo "to squash" the network from making him take his shirt off in "Eight Is Enough" and its TV movie reunions.

Though highly suspicious of his fame, especially when thousands cheered at his band's gigs when he did not consider himself such a good musician, the star was kind to his fans. He made a point of reading a few pieces of fan letters every week.

The "Zapped!" star felt a little sad for some of his fans who included their number in their correspondence and decided to give a random fan a buzz. A shocked Hung was on the other end of the line and promptly dropped the call when Aames introduced himself.

In the late 2000s, Aames went into a downward spiral where he was homeless, struggling with substance abuse, divorced for the second time.

What followed would become what the star called his "favorite story in the whole wide universe." The actor called back, and their chat led to a strictly platonic friendship where the two would occasionally talk over the phone and sporadically write to each other.

Winnie Hung Has Acted in Various Projects in the DC Universe

Hung was born on January 14, 1972, in Hong Kong and moved to Canada at some point. The ingénue made her acting debut at 21 in the Canadian teen series "Madison," which was in the same vein as "Degrassi Junior High."

She followed this with a small unnamed part in the blockbuster "Legends of the Fall," starring Brad Pitt and Sir Anthony Hopkins. She's best known for her guest-starring roles in "Godiva's" and "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" and the Netflix film "The Perfection."

Most recently, she had a recurring role in the third and sixth seasons of "Supergirl" as Mrs. Li. She has also worked behind the scenes as a producer and stand-in. The actress is guarded about her private life, but it is known that she had not been married before 2014.

Willie Aames Knew Winnie Hung Was 'The One' the Moment He Met Her

In the late 2000s, Aames went into a downward spiral where he was homeless, struggling with substance abuse, divorced for the second time, and his acting career halted. He realized it was time "to start over" when he woke up one night in the bushes.

The TV Land Awards Favorite Teen Dream nominee found piecemeal jobs. Eventually, he worked his way up to the cruise director position on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager and other cruise liners. Hung contacted him over LinkedIn during this time and became a trusted confidant.

The actress, based in Vancouver, Canada, suggested they meet the next time he docked in her country in 2013, and soon after, they got the opportunity. The cruise director remembers that his knees were weak, and he couldn't breathe when he first laid eyes on her.

Hung believes that the timing was perfect as she "already trusted him as a human being" at that point. She did not think their innocent back and forth would become anything more. She initially insisted on keeping the status quo of their friendship, but that soon changed. She said:

"It's so funny, we still sit across the table from each other and look at each other and go, 'I can't believe it's you. You're the one.'"

The former pen pals got married on March 21, 2014, ten months after their initial face-to-face meeting. Her sister told Aames that the "Supergirl" actress had waited 30 years for him.

Willie and Winnie Turned Their Love Story into a Movie

Willie Aames said bon voyage to the high seas after his eight-year stint on cruise liners in May 2016. The actor tweeted in part, "time to let my feet take root..." Along with Hung and writer Rich Tabach, he reinterpreted their love story into a Hallmark movie, "Love in the Limelight."

The film starred Alexa PenaVega and Carlos PenaVega, who is a married couple in real life. The film aired in August 2022, kicking off the channel's "Fall Harvest" line-up.

Since Aames's return to acting, he has acted opposite his wife Hung in Meghan Markle's last movie credit, "Dater's Handbook," in 2016. He played Mr. Peterson in "One Small Indiscretion" and co-starred in the 2017 holiday film "Every Christmas Has a Story."

The Hallmark star has two children, Christopher Aames and Harleigh Upton, from his first two marriages. Christopher is a "brilliant composer," according to his dad, with whom he texts ten times a day. Upton had parts in three of her father's projects, most notably an episode of "Bibleman."