Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber had everything Hollywood could offer – but when it came to their family, they made one decision that changed everything….

For years, Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber kept their marriage, their children and their everyday lives remarkably far away from the spotlight.

There were no constant magazine appearances. No effort to turn their family into a Hollywood brand. And they rarely opened the door to the public when it came to their private lives.

In fact, Pam has explained that keeping their family out of the headlines wasn’t simply a preference.

It became something they felt they had to do.

When Pam was preparing to marry Mark, she had already seen what could happen when a celebrity wedding became a media spectacle. She recalled hearing about the intense attention surrounding Julianne Phillips and Bruce Springsteen’s wedding, including helicopters hovering over her parents’ home and reporters waiting outside.

Pam didn’t want that kind of attention surrounding her own wedding.

“We’re not trying to keep something secret, but if you don’t want it totally exploited by the press, you have to,” she explained.

And years later, Mark summed up their approach in an even simpler way.

“It’s not even a choice. It’s who we are.”