Hitched.

The bold truth about true love.

Rich and Venus Jolly
JUNE 14, 2003

If you were to see Rich and Venus Jolly on the street, you'd probably see them holding hands.

As the young couple passed by, you'd get a closer look at their tattoos. There's a blazing red heart supported by bluish wings that spreads across Venus' chest. Rich, 27, sports inked-on images that are, perhaps, more menacing. He's got the word "HARDCORE" stamped across his knuckles, two tattoos on either side of his neck and countless more covering both of his arms.

If you saw them walking down Northwest 23rd Avenue, you'd probably consider them as just another punk-rock couple holding hands.

But take a look at Rich's other hand and you'll see a briefcase, and a Spider-Man lunchbox, that he carries to his job selling house alarms. Venus, 26, holds a shopping bag, befitting her new neo-traditional role as a stay-at-home mom and part-time student. "He makes the money, and I spend it," she says with a wide, cheeky grin.

Things weren't always like this.

Two-and-a-half years ago, the couple met at the Northwest Cultural Center. From the moment he saw Venus, Rich says, he knew he'd end up with her. He asked a friend who she was: "That's Venus. She's married."

Months later, Rich heard Venus was getting divorced. He tried to get her attention at a Halloween party, but says he "chickened out."

When he finally did call, he blurted out a list of reasons he found her attractive. Even after he took a deep breath, Rich's ending was, at best, goofy: "And I really like your hair." Venus' response matched Rich's impetuous declaration: She demanded a date.

Despite her bold command, Venus was nervous. Her pending divorce was messy, and she was taking care of her then-3-year-old son, River, and her sister's kids. The two went to the movies, taking in Johnny Depp's 2001 film From Hell--not exactly the most romantic first-date movie. Venus admits she didn't know how to behave. Midway through the movie, she whispered a not-so-subtle request in Rich's ear. "I asked him if he wanted to fuck me," she says.

The couple did go home together that night, and things between them didn't end when the sun came up. They spent every day together after that, and by the end of the week, Venus' son even referred to Rich as his "new dad."

An intense beginning, to be sure, and the relationship has continued at full throttle ever since then. Before the couple was married in Reno this June, they'd burned through three proposals and three engagement rings.

Venus liked hearing the question, but she was wary. Her last marriage had barely ended, after all.

It wasn't until the third time Rich proposed, when they had been together for two years, that Venus realized that she and Rich were already living quite a domestic life. That's when the two finally began to plan a wedding.

They made the arrangements themselves and married at the Circus Circus casino with a reception at a nearby park. They'd spent more than $3,000 on the day and, to their disappointment, less than a dozen friends and family showed up.

Redemption came later that night. Still adorned in their wedding gear, the two attended a Pat Benatar/Neil Giraldo concert. After spotting the couple in the crowd, Giraldo invited them onstage. Afterwards, the couple was cheered and backslapped by a supportive crowd, a triumphant end to a disappointing day.

Now married just two months, they remain giddy newlyweds, optimistic about what's to come but still brutally honest about their lives and past troubles. When asked about his black eye, Rich brags about the cause: rough sex--the kind of dirty laundry most people would keep quiet. These former street kids are talking about buying a house. Rich says he'd like some of his tattoos removed, and both dream of having a kid of their own.

Though they've still got a ways to go before their "happily ever after" ending, Rich and Venus have already built a domestic life more stable than anything either of them has ever known.

WWeek 2015

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