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Two's Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Love, Life & Business

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In her most personal and inspiring book yet, New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Somers shows readers how to shape a healthy, lasting relationship through the lens of her fifty-year love affair with her husband, Alan Hamel. For the first time, Suzanne will expose the inner workings of her marriage: a winning combination of love, business, and family. Starting from the very beginning, when a big-city guy from Toronto met a small-town girl from San Bruno, California, readers will get a behind-the-scenes perspective on Suzanne's groundbreaking success as a TV star and Las Vegas diva, multiple-bestselling author, and successful entrepreneur and businesswoman, along with her more personal life as a mother, partner, and ultimately self-fulfilled woman. Through fame, fortune, sickness and blended families, Suzanne and Alan have kept the vitality of their marriage alive-- together 24/7 (and haven't spent a night apart in 37 years), and combining business savvy in their constantly evolving relationship. Now, Suzanne reveals hard-won advice on how to rely on another person without sacrificing individual strengths.



In this mixture of love story, memoir, and practical guide, readers, too, will discover how to forge and maintain a true partnership that's built to last.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2017

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336 people want to read

About the author

Suzanne Somers

69 books113 followers
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Suzanne Somers was an American actress, author, and businesswoman. Best known for her role as the ditzy blonde Chrissy Snow on the ABC sitcom Three's Company, she also had a noted starring role on the sitcom Step by Step as Carol Foster Lambert. She later capitalized on her acting career by also establishing herself as an author of a series of self-help books. She had released two autobiographies, two self-help books, four diet books, and a book about hormone replacement therapy. She had featured items of her design on the Home Shopping Network.

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5 stars
67 (31%)
4 stars
80 (37%)
3 stars
47 (21%)
2 stars
16 (7%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
108 reviews3 followers
November 25, 2017
In "TWO'S COMPANY", Suzanne Somers writes about her relationship with her husband Alan Hamel. This book has it all, pain, sadness and happiness, the stuff life is made of. Two statements really got my attention, "We are all capable of the worst behavior; can you still love each other even then?" and " Take care of each other, compliment each other, and listen to each other." "TWO'S COMPANY", a love story you will be glad you read.
1,380 reviews98 followers
April 21, 2018
I've never read one of her books before but based on this one, Suzanne Somers is delusional. She has written an incredibly unimpressive book that's supposed to be about life with her "perfect" husband, but there is very little in it that explains how they've survived 50 years together. She comes across as completely self-centered and egotistical, unaware that every page is filled with her unwarranted braggadocio cloaked in the claim that she had the lowest self esteem of anyone her therapist had ever met and blaming her alcoholic father for all of her problems. So while she wants to brag over and over again about her talent and her ability to make things happen, in truth she should be ashamed of some of the choices she made and act a lot more humble.

The first section of the book relates how she met the then-married Alan and proceeded to have a six-year love affair with him without telling anyone else. The married man with kids would come to San Francisco four nights a week, she would put her child from her first marriage to bed, and the two would spend the night having sex before she snuck home before her kid woke up. She does all of this having almost no money and spending what should have gone to creditors on her flings with Alan. During this time she brags about what a great mother she was and how she put her son first. Right. The early signs of delusion.

At one point she lets her boy go outside to play in the driveway but he rides a skateboard into the street where a passing car hits him. That leads to them going to therapy, and she believes that the therapist saved her life. The woman shrink over a period of years convinced Somers that she had low self esteem, needed to confront her father, needed to confront Alan about their secret relationship that he refused to allow to get serious, and that through it all Suzanne was a good mother. At one point Somers says that if she would have been stronger she would have sued the person that ran into her son—yet she is the one to blame for letting the kid play outside unsupervised in a major city, and the kid caused the accident, not the driver. The whole thing reinforces that the star is delusional and actually thinks way too highly of herself to see reality.

After five years she and Alan finally say “I love you” to each other. Seriously? Five years of weekly trysts, spending a couple hundred days a year together, and the love words never came out? Shortly thereafter she moves into his place in Los Angeles and issues come up when the kids from each side don’t get along. The couple fly off for Christmas alone, leaving the kids with their others parents. Again, so much for the illusion of putting family first.

Her story about getting Three’s Company is almost too simple to be true. Fred Silverman saw her on Johnny Carson and asked her to audition, after a few minutes she got the job even though she had no acting experience and had never done a scripted TV show before. The show became an overnight hit and that’s when Somers’ ego takes flight. She calls herself the biggest star on TV and the hottest celebrity in America. Then she claims over and over that she’s on the #1 show in the country (even saying it three times on one page!) which just plain isn’t true. She overstates many things in the book (such as calling boyfriend Alan Canada’s “biggest TV star”), but mostly it's non-stop bragging regarding her own success and that of Three's Company (which was a top ten show for years but never #1 in season ratings). She is also incredibly repetitive throughout the book, telling some stories 2 or 3 times and never stopping with the idea that she was the biggest star on the #1 TV show (after her nude photos were published she wrote, “Our ratings skyrocketed. It’s hard to get higher than number one.”)

With Somers starting to make big money and the covers of all major magazines, Alan suddenly was interested in marriage after ten years of being happy without it. So he decided to quit his own Canadian TV career to manage Suzanne’s. That led to one of the things she is best known for--demanding too much money from ABC when her contract was up for renewal She sets the situation up as herself being the first to blaze the trail in wanting equal pay for woman, claiming she only made 10% of male network TV stars. But that’s not what it was at all—it was simply a money-hungry couple overplaying her perceived celebrity, when she was actually a no-name with no acting experience who was given a break. Instead of being grateful for how her life had changed, she thought she acted like she was better than everyone else. Her husband, who critics properly called a Svengali, tried to negotiate a big payoff when her contract came up for renewal (a raise from $30,000 to $150,00 per episode and 10% of profits!) but instead she was fired by the network. In the book Suzanne claims innocence and sees herself as a victim of anti-female sentiment; in truth she overestimated her value by a lot and the show went on just fine without her.

Alan, who writes sections of the book, claims this was the “dumbest self-inflicted catastrophe in modern television history” but thinks it’s the network that suffered. He claims it resulted in the show being cancelled early, when in truth it went on another four years (one with just Ritter with the new title Three’s a Crowd). Suzanne says it bombed with “greatly reduced ratings” but the truth is the show was #8 in the ratings when she left and it was #4 and #6 in the ratings the next two years. This couple doesn’t get that history shows the catastrophe was actually Somers’ own disaster and make her a laughing stock. The delusional couple actually try to rewrite history in this book, turning the pages into propaganda. And if they have misinformation that’s so easy to disprove with simple online searches, what about the rest of the stories they tell?

The rest of the book is just annoying. Over and over it's bragging that her Vegas shows had the biggest attendance, that she starred in "major" motion pictures (can you name one she starred in after Three's Company?), that their kids were all brilliant or #1 in their class (she must be trying to mend a relationship with her step-daughter because she makes way too many references about how great a costume designer she is), that her books were all #1 New York Times bestsellers, and then near the end she even calls herself a "pop culture icon."

It's all nauseating because it lacks so little substance or perspective. There is no more depth here than an episode of Step By Step, which barely gets mentioned in the book! Her health issues are covered in so little detail that I'm still unsure what exactly her problems were and what she did that got her doctors so mad at her.

Ultimately the book is a failure because you learn very little about what makes this couple work. No doubt they appear to have a relationship unlike 99% of the population, bragging about their sexual lives even in their 70s, but what exactly have they done to get to that point? She alludes to three rough patches but gives no details. And it's hard to believe that sex-driven Alan was completely faithful to her during all those years, especially when she went into a depression and stopped having sex with him. We'll never know because there is so little truth in the book.

That's ironic since on the second to the last page she writes, "I have told myself the truth. I believe you don't phony it up, if you have the courage to be humble, people take to it." Again, she's delusional. She comes across as a complete fake who ignores reality and fails to have the humility she brags about. There's a reason so many people in the business dislike her and disowned her--maybe she and her husband should listen more carefully to what others say instead of propping each other up with non-stop praise.
Profile Image for Ash Wilson.
111 reviews5 followers
December 29, 2017
I’ll admit, going into reading this book, I knew very little to absolutely nothing about Suzanne Somers. I barely remember “Step By Step” from when I was growing up. I’ve barely watched any “Threes Company” reruns. She’d written something like, 25 or 26 books previously, but I’ve never really been into her health, fitness & vitamin stuff either, so I’ve never read any of her stuff before.

That being said, I knew even less about her husband, Alan Hamel, although I understand he’s a very big deal in Canada, haha!

Sooo I felt coming from that perspective, I came in with a perfectly open mind & zero bias. I heard them on a morning television program promoting the book & the idea of a 50+ year romance in the world of Hollywood being together literally 24/7 & yet still being so deeply in love & so strongly physically attracted to each other fascinated me. I was pretty excited to read this book. I love a good (REAL) love story!

A couple of problems revealed themselves to me very early on.

Something about how Suzanne’s personality comes off in the book bugs me. Like a preppy, better than everyone else attitude. I mean, she thanks her therapists (plural) in the opening dedication. She acts like she’s always happy & chooses to live this perfectly healthy in every aspect life - yet she spends a lot of the book blaming everyone else for so many horrible troubles & struggles throughout her life.

Alan comes off as kind of a pig / peeve & Suzanne comes off as someone ditzy & infatuated enough to go along with it. Case in point, they promoted the book on Megyn Kelly’s program & Suzanne laughed talking about how sometimes Alan has sex with her when Suzanne’s not even awake. She said they found out that’s illegal in Canada & he’d be arrested there. She laughed @ this whole story & he said that it’s “fine with him” if she’s not awake. I’m sorry. That’s creepy. I don’t care if you are married. To each their own...

Then there’s the story about how they met. She was working as a model on a game show that he was hosting. He walked up to her & asked her to get him coffee. He’s still married @ the time. He invites her to have their 1st date in his hotel room. Greets her by telling her to take off her shoes (Japanese custom). Psychedelic. He gave her her first pot. Got her drunk. Screwed her. Seemed like he took advantage of her. My Negative Nancy point of view? Sounds like the set up for date rape.

Date #2, in her own writing: “He didn’t ask me, he TOLD me to meet him at his hotel.” Date #2 in his own writing: “Frankly, I ordered champagne & dessert so we could get out of there. All I could think of was getting naked again.”

I am ALL for the honeymoon phase! But their whirlwind romance just didn’t come off like that to me. I also didn’t like Suzanne’s tone of: “My father was a terrible alcoholic, yet I was drunk or high every single time I had sex with Alan when we first got together.”

The beginning of their romance just basically read like a trashy sex novel to me.

I DO congratulate & commend them on their unbelievably amazing sex drive & sex life this many years into their relationship - honestly, I do. I don’t think I’ve ever known or heard of anyone with as great a consistent sex life as these two. I think that there are only AMAZING things & absolutely nothing better - physical health wise, emotional health wise, for the relationship, etc than having “crazy, wild” sex as often as you can with your life partner! But after a while when reading a book, you do get a little bit tired of hearing about it. It loses its passion & just turns redundant & into sounding like a trashy sex novel instead of a real life love story. The first several years of their courtship became SO predictable. Yes, we know. You ate amazing food, drank amazingly expensive alcohol & had amazingly wild sex. I think there’s really no need to explain to us how every date, every fight, every night spent together in your lives, you’ve had sex. We can just infer that after a while. haha!

And throughout the book, things both she said about him & Alan’s little inserts himself just really made him kind of come off as an ass.

At one point in the book, Suzanne implied that stress can give you cancer. “Anger & resentment build up and can make you feel sick. (I got cancer later in life. When did it begin? Just a thought...)”

Throughout the book, there WERE some good, 3 star parts, advice & oversight - but overall, especially towards the end, this was just an okay, 2 star book for me. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but overall, I think that I just don’t quite click in with Suzanne & Alan. They just come off as sort of fake, cheesy and full of themselves in/& how ‘perfectly they choose to live their lives despite the world being against them’ to me a lot of the time. He seems like an ass. She mostly just seems to have a very positive & uplifting attitude .... about constantly playing / being the victim. She also got repetitive about several subjects throughout the book.

Honestly, near the end of the book, she really started to annoy me. First with the fire story & then everyone poisoning her & conspiring against her in the medical & pharmaceutical world because she had so many #1 New York Times bestselling books speaking against them that lost them so much money. I’m sorry. I rolled my eyes. That just got ridiculous. I do feel for what she went through & desperately hope that her theories are incorrect. But the fact that she went around to doctors who helped her write her books to test her hair & prove all of her conspiracy theories that these medical professionals would all band together to actually try to kill her & take her down & that she had to be in therapy for over a year afterwards because of the PTSD she suffered? Give me a break. Diva syndrome.

Speaking of diva syndrome. Here’s a few gem quotes about their Malibu home burning down the day they went to their Palm Springs house: “Alan & I stood a foot away from the TV set watching our house disappear, and then to add insult to injury, my jaguar blew up.” And a quote from Alan: “I thought about the personal things that burned and missed nothing aside from the Tom Ford leather jackets designed at Gucci.” Insert eye roll.

I also just don’t believe all of her ‘divine intervention’ moments throughout the book where everything was dark & going wrong & then she’d ‘hear a voice’ through the silence telling her some prophetic words that would break through to her to “make a positive out of a negative” & she calls it, but I call it using minor tragedies in most normal peoples lives & calling them major tragedies that she overcame in hers ... to write books & perform shows about & make millions of dollars off of.

I do have to hand it to her & her husband - they have managed to somehow keep her relevant outside of acting & HSN appearances without actually being a musician, yet having a Vegas show. Not really being an author, but writing nearly 30 books, mostly on medical information that I don’t think she’s actually at all qualified to give, but they sell & Dr. Oz has her on his show, so I guess it works out.

They are unbelievably impressive entrepreneurs. They’ve made every crazy idea they could possibly come up with work to make a profit for them. With Alan pulling the strings to make the deals, Suzanne’s literally pretty much done it all.

Like I said, as brutally harsh as I am and feel in this review, the book did have some parts of merit even to me, and that’s why it earned itself 2 stars. But overall? I went in wanting to read more of her books. I’m walking away thinking I’ve read enough.
Profile Image for Carol N.
874 reviews21 followers
January 16, 2018
I just finished Suzanne’s book discussing her life's lessons. A locally born actress, I have followed since her early days at KGO TV in San Francisco.

Her story is of a woman who worked her butt off, overcoming many obstacles along the way. And even though she was fired from “Two’s Company,” she kept her wits and endured, making a career adjustment by becoming one of top attractions in Las Vegas. Her life lessons are astounding. Even though she got fired/rejected, she kept her wits about her life, all the while being deeply in love with “her man.” He, in turn, always wanted what was best for his wife! Together they continue work to not only to blend their families, but also blend their careers by spending 24/7 together. That in itself is an accomplishment!
Profile Image for Crystal Harkness.
77 reviews
May 17, 2018
I feel very grateful that I won this amazing book from a goodreads giveaway. Suzanne Somers is truly an inspiration. I think there are parts of her story that anyone could relate to. Everything from her abusive childhood, to her wonderful marriage, to her health battles, to life's tragedies. But through all of it, she bounced back and kept on being fabulous! I think everyone should read this book and read her other books as well. Suzanne Somers is an amazing woman and I am glad she put her story out there for us to read.
Profile Image for Perri.
1,532 reviews63 followers
November 9, 2021
DNF. I usually don't rate books I don't finish but I read enuf to know it's awful. I picked it up from a freebie pile and being a Threee's Company fan from back in the day, gave it a shot. Big mistake-the more I read, the more I disliked her.
Profile Image for Ashley Howell.
35 reviews
January 22, 2025
I liked this book. I read it after she had passed. She did a wonderful job of letting the reader into her life. Her battle with breast cancer was devastating, especially knowing in the end it would take her.
She was a talented lady, I wasn’t aware of that. She did work so hard. I loved the relationship with her husband. She didn’t romanticize it and shared their ups and downs
Profile Image for John.
447 reviews15 followers
December 18, 2017
Suzanne Somers did a wonderful job in writing this book. It was a pleasure to read and took me through all kinds of emotions. Having followed Ms. Somers for so many years made this even more fun to read. I would recommend everyone read this as there are many nice life lessons to be found in her "50 Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Love, Life and Business". Thanks Ms. Somers! I won this great book on GoodReads and like I do with most my wins I will be paying it forward by giving my win either to a friend or library to enjoy.
Profile Image for James Weske.
63 reviews1 follower
April 11, 2018
I admit to always having admired her tenacity and independent spirit, whether it was in her dealings in entertainment or leading the cause of alternative and holistic medicine, but I wasn't sure what to expect from this read. I have read a few of her other books, which have included stories and anecdotes regarding her Three's Company years and her relationship with her husband, but this book digs deeper into areas with which I was wholly unfamiliar.
This is a light and quick read, but is full of insights into what has helped her succeed over the past 50 years, both professionally and personally. While a charmed life it appears from the outside, this book shows the struggles that are always behind the curtain that Hollywood typically does not prefer to reveal. Kudos to Ms. Somers for her honesty and bravery, those things that have endeared her to so many for the last four decades.
Profile Image for Sheri Kempton.
390 reviews1 follower
April 29, 2020
What a wonderful book. Suzanne Somers has had such a fascinating career and life. She is a very experienced writer and it definitely shows in this book. It was such a smooth read with Alan Hamel interjecting on some of the chapters. She explains how she turns negative things that have happened in her life into positives. She is very inspiring and I can't wait to see what she does next.
Profile Image for Chris.
475 reviews7 followers
February 10, 2021
I have followed Suzanne Somers ever since I received her book of poetry for my college graduation. I love books about strong women. She overcame many obstacles from having an abusive alcoholic father to a teenage pregnancy and marriage. She is most famous for her role as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company. She was fired from the show when she wanted similar pay as her co-stars. But she turned this around and she and her husband started their own company. This is also the story of her long term romance with her husband Alan Hammel. I didn't want this book to end.
74 reviews2 followers
July 5, 2021
A surprising story of a popular and successful actress we all know or have heard of and whose success in several fields is a great tale or perseverance, luck, and pluck. Suzanne Somers tells her story truthfully and without any censorship of the parts of her life that might trouble or embarrass another without the moxie of this talented woman. The book is a page-turner and keeps you engaged and rooting for her all along the way. It is over too soon.

Looking for an inspiring story? This is it!
Profile Image for Gwen.
549 reviews
November 28, 2017
Suzanne Somers is a prolific writer, however she expresses herself well. This glimpse into her life was entertaining, informative and educational.

I received this book free from Goodreads First Reads.
137 reviews
December 5, 2017
Loved her as Chrissy

This was long and in the end boring, but all of it was publicity perfected.

I am not sure why I bought this.

She is still Chrissy and I still love Three's Company, and am truly glad she is happy, but I should have borrowed this one,
Profile Image for Katherine.
118 reviews
February 2, 2018
My first Suzanne Somers book. Very impressed with her as a person, and with the dedication between she and Alan Hamel (who I recall mostly from Razzle Dazzle). Learned so much about her that I had no idea about. Good book, interesting, even though there is a lot of repetition. Inspiring.
10 reviews
February 5, 2018
I was NOT impressed with this book. I think you should keeping your "dirty laundry" to yourself & NOT air it for everyone to read. I felt like both Ms Somers and her husband wants the world to evolve around them. But otherwise the writing was good.
Profile Image for Ruby.
11 reviews
May 20, 2018
Something can be learned

I was surprised I liked this book as much as I did. Suzanne is certainly a very strong woman and very intelligent also.
This book is a love story between Suzanne and Alan.
Profile Image for Tony.
61 reviews3 followers
August 3, 2021
An entire chapter about how a group of pharmaceutical reps poisoned her in a hotel bar to stop her from espousing the benefits of bioidentical hormones. Your faves could never. A true star and legend.
Profile Image for Laura Henderson.
105 reviews5 followers
February 5, 2018
I found out some stuff about Suzanne Somers. The writing was great. In a way that I could understand.
264 reviews3 followers
April 19, 2018
Authentic. "It's not who you are, it's not what you do, it's not what you have; it's only about who you love and who loves you."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Carmen Shea Brown.
103 reviews
May 30, 2018
I loved it. If you're a fan of her or Three's Company, it's well worth your time.
Profile Image for Terre Max.
34 reviews10 followers
August 29, 2018
I enjoyed reading about Suzanne and her husbands relationship. Good book.
1 review
December 8, 2018
Love Suzanne

A lifelong fan of Suzanne Somers....I find her honest, loving and wise. Easy read. Enjoyed the insight from Alan. Great team!
Profile Image for Gato Negro.
1,219 reviews2 followers
January 12, 2019
This is an entertaining book with lots of valid relationship reminders; plus, love Suzanne's healthy attitude toward change, challenges, hurtful feedback, and self care.
Profile Image for Allison Bailey.
386 reviews1 follower
January 27, 2024
Read in a day and a half…very interesting! Sometimes shocking, sometimes eye rolling, sometimes inspirational, but you can’t say she didn’t lead a fascinating life
Profile Image for zasou.reads.
1,857 reviews10 followers
May 20, 2024
This made me believe even stronger the fact that there are always two sides to a story.
27 reviews
May 30, 2024
3.5 stars. Good book. A lot of great lessons and quotes. I just have a problem with the editing of the book. Other than that it is romantic, and I cried a handful of times throughout.
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