Charlize Theron opened up during a recent interview with People magazine about her relationship with Sean Penn. The two–a couple for a little more than a year now–recently worked together, adding a new facet to their togetherness. Sean Penn directed Charlize Theron in the upcoming film The Last Face.

“Putting aside that he’s my partner, he’s the love of my life; for the first time, I felt that my work was really bleeding into my life, and that made it hard,” she says. “There were moments where I was incredibly unfair to him. And moments where I felt like … he was incredibly unfair to me. But it makes you realize that no matter how complicated it gets, the priority is the relationship.”

It’s interesting to hear Charlize Theron call Sean Penn the love of her life, because that’s exactly how he described her just a few short months ago.

Charlize Theron calls Sean Penn "the love of my life," but admits they've had ups and downs: http://t.co/nImkPTme9f pic.twitter.com/zftuJWIz9c

— Us Weekly (@usweekly) May 7, 2015

He was speaking to France’s Le Parisien in February, when a reporter referred to Charlize Theron as his girlfriend.

“No, no, excuse me, Charlize is not my girlfriend,” he interjected. “She’s the love of my life.”

If Charlize Theron and Sean Penn truly feel this way about each other, then their relationship likely has what it takes to survive the wealth of scenarios that are typically thrown at most couples–even working side by side.

Do you think the next step for Charlize Theron and Sean Penn might even be marriage? Or do you think they’re content to refer to one another as the loves of their lives–forgoing titles like husband and wife?