Courtney B. Vance on the One Rule He and Angela Bassett Shared Raising Twins: It ‘Was Our Mantra’ (Exclusive)

Courtney B. Vance says he and wife Angela Bassett have successfully balanced their busy careers with raising their children by sticking to one firm rule.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in this week’s issue, 61st Street star, 63, reveals that shortly after their fraternal twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, were born in 2006, he and Bassett, 65, decided to always have one parent at home for stability and consistency in their family.

“Our mantra was, ‘Someone will be home.’ We’re never going to let us both go away at the same time and have a nanny raise the kids,” Vance says of the couple, who alternate between business trips and commitments.

“My job has given me the opportunity to be able to come back every other day, every two, three days, no more than a week,” adds the Emmy-winning actor known for The People v. OJ Simpson and The Land of Lovecraft.

Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance with their children Slater and Bronwyn. David Crotty/Patrick McMullan Timeline of Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance’s relationship

Bassett also has a demanding schedule, often leaving her home to film her hit series 9-1-1 before the sun rises and return after dark.

Some days, she tells PEOPLE in this week’s Women Changing the World cover story, “I feel a little guilty about it, but I also hope that the [my kids] to see a mom, a wife, a black woman achieve her dreams, there is success. They will see that hard work pays off. And they will decide for themselves about that life.”

While their system smoothly guided the family through Bronwyn and Slater’s childhood, Vance and Bassett will soon have to adjust to a new normal. The twins, now 18, are preparing to head off to college, leaving their parents – who have been married since 1997 – empty handed.

“Our life has been preparing for this,” Vance reflects, noting that he and Bassett got a glimpse of what their lives would soon look like when Bronwyn and Slater went to summer camp in Texas this summer.

Before the admissions process, the family also did a grand college tour, visiting 26 schools. “And they’re so ready,” Vance says of his children.

As for him and Bassett, the latter of whom was awarded an honorary Oscar for his work in January with his family by her side, Vance says he’ll embrace change as it comes.

“This is another transition. We went down the baby aisle, now we have to go down the empty-nest aisle and get used to them not being here,” he notes.

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And as college approaches, friends start offering advice. “Someone tells me that when you take them to school, don’t go home, go on vacation, go somewhere, do something,” Vance says. “So you come back with a little taste instead of a little sadness in your mind and heart.”

Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance with their children Slater and Bronwyn.

VALERIE MACON/getty

While it’s a bittersweet moment to see your children grow up and go out into the world on their own, Vance knows it means a job well done. “Someone told me, ‘If you do it right, parenting is a job you do yourself,'” he says. “But again, it just transitions into something else. You become a cheerleader [for your kids].”

Courtney B. Vance on Raising Teenage Twins with Angela Bassett: ‘I Go to Work to Relax’ (Exclusive)

In a November 2023 interview with PEOPLE, Vance joked about the challenges of raising twins, saying, “I always tell people I go to work to rest and I come home to work.”

“I’m running around this house, doing this and that,” he continued. “That’s the way we are, we’re busy, all of us. The four of us and our company director and our executive assistant, we’re a machine that really all have to communicate, ‘Who has this person, who has that person?'”

For more on Angela Bassett’s career and home life, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE magazine, on newsstands everywhere now.

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