Billy Crystal is just as madly in love with his wife, Janice, as he was when they first met as teenagers at Malibu Beach Club in New York in the late ’60s.

They both instantly felt a special connection that he can’t quite describe, but, he shares with Closer, “I get it and we get it and we’ve gotten it since we first got together when I was 18 and she was 17.”

Now the 66-year-old comedian, who couldn’t resist a little smooch with his wife at the Los Angeles Clippers game at the Staples Center on April 21, is preparing to honor 43 years of marriage to Janice, 65, this June with a special getaway.

billy crystal

“This past couple of years has been just one great thing after the other, working, working, working,” says Billy.

“So I think it is time to stop working for a while — we talked about going to Europe for like six or eight weeks, and renting a house and just [relaxing], that’s it. I’ll grow a beard!”

The nine-time Oscar host gushes that in his version of heaven, “I’ll be 18 and Janice will walk by me in a bikini, and I will follow her and it will start all over again.

He sweetly adds, “I can’t bear to think of life without [her].”