Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen say their relationship is 'like a marriage,' in rare interview

In a rare interview, famously reticent actresses-turned-fashion designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen described their intense bond as twins as being like a marriage.

"It's been 32 years of learning how to communicate," Ashley Olsen, said in a joint interview with The Wall Street Journal's monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine, WSJ., posted online Monday. Their relationship is "a marriage and a partnership," she said. "We have had ups and downs."

Speaking publicly in order to help introduce the new menswear line by their 12-year-old luxury brand, The Row, the twins — whose two siblings and two half-siblings include Marvel Cinematic Universe star Elizabeth Olsen — said business decisions for their fashion line are made jointly and with great deliberation. "We do everything together," Ashley Olsen told the magazine. "We came out of the womb doing that," added her twin.

They retain independent lives, they pointed out. Mary-Kate Olsen, an equestrian and a Hamptons habitué who has competed in the Hampton Classic Horse Show in Bridgehampton, has been married nearly three years to financier Olivier Sarkozy. Ashley Olsen, while never publicly acknowledging a relationship, was often photographed on what appeared to be romantic dates with financier Richard Sachs for several month in late 2016 and early 2017.

The twins — who grew up before a national television audience on ABC's 1987-'95 "Full House," then went on to their own shows and popular direct-to-video programs — said they developed their fashion expertise through years of wardrobe fittings and exposure to the intricacies of fabric and cut.

"Our whole lives we spent most of our time in fittings," Mary-Kate Olsen explained. "Because we're so petite, we had to cut clothes to our size." The Row, which is carried by Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and others in addition to the label's two boutiques in New York and Los Angeles, has won awards including the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2012.

"I think the clothes speak for themselves, and so to put a face or a name with the product doesn't ever feel right," Mary-Kate Olsen told WSJ. Added Ashley Olsen, "I don't know if it's because of the way we grew up — we just don't like talking about ourselves or talking about what we're doing.... It's not really our approach."