Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran is happy sleeping in a separate bedroom from her husband, Bill Higgins — especially because it keeps their more intimate moments from becoming too lengthy.
“I have to invite him into my bedroom and it’s like it’s his birthday. ‘How old you are, Bill? Come on in!’” Corcoran, 75, quipped in a preview for the upcoming episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show, per People. “[Does it] make sex better? No, but he thinks it does.”
When host Jamie Kern Lima asked if Higgins finds sex more enjoyable with their arrangement because it’s a “sure thing,” Corocoran replied with a laugh, “Yeah! And I like it because it’s a short thing. Not s-u-r-e, but s-h-o-r-t.”
“My idea of a special night with my husband is a good game of Scrabble,” she continued. “He’ll often say to me S or S, and I’ll say ‘Scrabble’ ’cause the first S means sex, and I say, ‘No, Scrabble,’ and I love beating him at Scrabble, and he loves beating me at Scrabble, and that’s a great night.”
Corcoran noted that there are plenty of other reasons she keeps a separate space from her husband of nearly four decades, noting that her career plays into her desire for “me time.”
“I think there’s something to be said about your own private space. I lead a very busy life. I have a huge family that I’m always entertaining. I have very sincere, active friends and so what I need more than anything else is a respite, and my husband is not relaxing,” she explained. “He has ideas that make no sense. And for me to come up with the energy at the end of the day to listen to him and to nod and to contribute to the conversation? I run a little short.”
She added, “Better I go to my room, and I have an hour to myself.”
Corcoran said that Higgins is well versed in the rules of their household, sharing that he will follow her if she goes into the “living room” but “doesn’t dare” join her in her bedroom.
“I have to invite him into my bedroom and I like it that way,” she said. “He’s never invited me back ’cause he knows I’ll never come into his bedroom, but I have to invite him into my bedroom.”
This isn’t the first time Corcoran had opened up about preferring separate sleeping arrangements in marriage. During an appearance on Today With Hoda & Jenna in March, she noted another reason she opts for her own nighttime space.
“He’s such a mess,” Corcoran quipped of Higgins “He puts piles of stuff everywhere and I am very neat so I couldn’t sleep well at night. Now, I sleep like a baby.”
Corcoran and Higgins tied the knot on Valentine’s Day in 1988. The couple share son Tom, whom they welcomed in 1994, and daughter Kate, whom they later adopted.
Earlier this year, Corcoran shared her best piece of marriage advice that doesn’t involve the bedroom.
“You really have to take your partner as they are and not hope through the marriage they’re going to change,” the TV personality told Hello! in February. “Because they never do. You have to be satisfied! What you see is what you get.”