How Cece Winans Married at 19 and Kept Love Alive For 31 Years

Popular gospel artist, CeCe Winans and her husband, Alvin Love, are celebrating 31 years of marriage this summer. Their holy union has been an inspiration to couples across the country in the midst of a divorce-ravaged generation.


Winans, who is sparing in her Twitter posts, wrote, “Happy 31st Anniversary Bay! You’re the best husband in the whole wide world! Thanks for Loving me well!! I really really Love you!!”

What many people many not know is that there is a significant age difference in the two lovebirds—16 years. Winans was only 17 when she met 33-year-old Love through mutual acquaintances.

“I met Alvin while bowling,” she laughs, “but we didn’t even talk that night. He was cute, but my mind was on singing, not dating.”

Love ended up spending a weekend with the Winans family while they were in South Carolina. During that visit, sparks began to fly.

“He was just himself—and I could be myself,” Winans recalled.

It would be less than a year of courtship before the couple tied the knot on June 23, 1984. In a 2008 interview with “Today’s Christian Women,” the couple shared that it took them about 10 years to discover the true meaning of a solid marriage.

“I learned what it meant to love CeCe the way Christ loved the church,” Love shared. “Jesus stands by us no matter how stubborn or disobedient we’ve been. We try to go back to that conference every year now. The second time they asked us to share about our marriage, and I cried. I looked back and realized God’s grace in my life—where I’ve come from and what he’s blessed me with in CeCe.”

“Getting married taught me how selfish I was,” CeCe chimed in. “It makes you accuse your partner: ‘You did this. You did that.’ It’s not Christlike. But Alvin and I were hearing God’s Word at church and applying it to our lives. Even just ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is good marriage advice. It boils down to whether you love God more than you love yourself.”

The couple continues to grow together as Christians as their love for each other increases with time. Love says that he doesn’t mind sharing CeCe with her fans because he knows that “she’s mine—until death do us part.”