this is "nightline." tonight, marry me. it's the latest twist on wedded bliss. women around the world getting married to themselves. >> i've been told i'm a great catch and today i'm catching myself. >> complete with white gowns, engagement rings, walks down the aisle and gift registries. how much do you love yourself? >> i'm getting engaged to myself. i don't want you to think i'm some kind of nut job. plus, sons of anarchy star katie segal opening up about her indirect road to stardom. >> i met a casting director who said, you will never work in television. and secrets from her days on the set of meard with children. >> hold me. >> why?

>> her love affair with gene simmons. and over coming her addictions. and celebrating national puppy day. even the stars are showing off their lucky dogs. but first tonight, the "nightline" 5. and number one is comi

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good evening, there's an expression made famous by the feminist icon gloria steinem. a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. some young women today are taking that sentiment to heart in dramatic fashion, by getting married to themselves. here's abc's linsey davis. >> reporter: by all accounts, erica anderson's wedding was perfect. >> i was like, on cloud 9. it was delightful. >> reporter: she had the wedding dress, the ring, the vows. >> i choose you today. >> i want this to be so easy. got rose, and, yeah, had like, 20, 30 friends over. >> reporter: the only thing missing, the groom. >> i will throw the bouquet somewhere. >> reporter: it was all about making a formal commitment to the love of her life -- herself. >> yeah, i've been told i'm a

great catch and today i'm catching myself. >> reporter: what started out as a house warming, later evolved -- >> and i'll marry myself. >> reporter: do you feel like it was an outward self-validation? >> absolutely. because i think it's hard not to adopt whatever society's messages are, and i certainly think that one of messages is that you're not enough if you're not with someone else. >> reporter: but erica is far from alone. she joins a small but growing number of women from around the world, women like yasmin, who celebrated her 40th birthday by saying i do. her mother even walked her down the aisle. >> hi, it's carrie bradshaw, i wanted to let you know that i'm getting married -- to myself. >> reporter: the notion of getting hitched solo was made popular by the show sex and the city. >> think about it, if you are single after graduation, there isn't one occasion where people

celebrate you. >> we have birthdays. >> oh, no, no, no, we all have birthdays. that's a wash. i'm talking about the single gal. >> reporter: a pivotal scene. >> so, thanks, bye. >> reporter: that sparked the beginning of this self-loving movement. >> one giant step for me, one small step for single woman kind. >> reporter: these ceremonies are one way in which many women are embracing a modern day reality. there are more single women than ever. roughly half of all adults in the u.s. are married, a record low compared to the 72% of adults in 1960. >> it's not a legal union, you don't get any tax breaks for it or anything, it's just a personal, it's just a personal union. >> reporter: you're breaking the box entirely. it's not a cliche, and self-marriage say radical invitation to be creative and to create your own ritual. >> reporter: sasha, who has been following the self-marriage trend for more than a decade. >> i think it helps to deepen that commitment to self-love, which just isn't an easy thing

in ourselves, where we're constantly comparing ourselves on facebook. >> jimm >> reporter: she knows first happened. her her, a self-marriage was the perfect preparation for a future relationship. >> basically, it makes you more developed as a person. you're committed to treating yourself well. that means you're going to treat another person better too. >> reporter: this concept is slowly going mainstream. >> dearly beloved, we are gathered today to join -- >> reporter: from tv shows like glee, to this lifetime movie. >> and i cherish myself. >> then marry yourself. >> reporter: called "i me wed." >> you know, that's not such a bad idea. >> reporter: and the wedding industry is taking notice. the i married me kit is essential l essentially a starter kit for self-marriages, complete with a single ring, vows and a price

tag up to $240. >> we wanted it to be super accessible. >> reporter: the masterminds behind the kit were inspired by their own nuptials. they had their guests marry themselves while they said their vows. >> it's a starter kit. >> it's a template. >> yeah, the idea was, i think a lot of people don't know, how would i even start, what would i do? >> reporter: at first, it was only available online, now it's sold in their california store. jeffrey designed the ring. >> it's very narrow and it's very light and it's very simple and that was what we decided to do, to have something delicate but super powerful. in the last three years, they've told more than 200 kits and counting as more women embrace this tradition. >> getting married here is, yeah, it's everything i could have wanted. >> reporter: petra also chose to put a ring on it. >> i kept getting the question, how come you're not married, why aren't you married, what's wrong

with you for not being married? and i was getting a little tired of answering that question. >> reporter: so she took a stand. >> i feel like a woman's chance to be wanted and worthy in our culture is actually measured in dog years. i'm sorry. we're really given this little window to find a mate, find a family, have it all, before we're 35. and it just isn't realistic. >> reporter: she's lived a successful life, a fashion designer by trade, even a rock star at one point, but marriage, she says, was never part of her plan. >> towards the end of my 30s things started to kinda wind down, by 40, that's when i started to feel the real pressure of, gee, i missed the boat. i'm thinking tool, i'm thinking bright colors. >> reporter: but she said, this is another option, asking yourself to say, i do. and while buying the ring and sketching the dress were easy -- >> i wanted to make an

announcement -- >> reporter: turns out, telling loved ones about her plan is proving slightly more difficult. >> i'm getting engaged to myself. >> whoa. >> i'm getting married. >> i have more questions. >> okay. [ laughter ] >> i just don't want to be -- i don't want you to think i'm sort of nut job. >> it doesn't hurt anyone, it doesn't take away from anyone. you're celebrating your own relationship to yourself. >> reporter: validation from a friend. perhaps the closest you get to seeking approval for your own hand in marriage. >> some people say the first year is the most difficult. [ laughter ] >> we've had some ups and downs. >> these were on the stairs. >> reporter: as for erica anderson, she's on the verge of celebrating her one-year anniversary. >> has your relationship with yourself changed pre and post wedding ceremony? >> i feel like it has. in looking at my relationship to dating, because it's an open

marriage -- >> because you're still open to dating? >> yes. >> so even though you are enough, and you're fulfilled alone -- >> right. >> -- you're still willing to have someone else join your space? >> yes, absolutely. yes. but i don't have to have it. >> reporter: for now, she says she's happily married, and this is certainly one marriage that won't end in divorce. >> someone else be so lucky to marry themselves. >> reporter: in new york, i'm linsey davis for "nightline." [ laughter ] next here, the actress katie segal from ""sons of anarchy" and "married with children" on her love affair with gene simmons and overcoming substance abuse. thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪

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♪ ♪ katie segal first rocketed into american consciousness as the over-the-top peg bundy on the hit sitcom "married with children." but watching that joyous performance, you may have never guessed her painful past. >> peg, what is it with you? you can change six d batteries in the dark, you can't find a two-ton automobile in broad daylight. >> let's not start talking about who can't find what in the dark. >> reporter: katie segal was the heart beat of "married with children" for 11 years. >> i don't shop that much. >> mom, the stuff you ordered is here. >> oh, goody! >> i thought that's what all wives were like. >> really? >> and i was going to glow up to marry somebody like you? >> oh, you did not. >> i did. >> well, she was kind of hot.

although i hope that hasn't been your situation. >> lil bit. >> your nose hairs look somehow longer? >> they moussed them. >> reporter: her first lead tv role, she was a rock chick. >> when they asked me to read for it, i thought, this is perfect for me, because this is so outside the box. we hadn't seen anything so outrageous on television before. >> you never bring me flowers. >> i would if you died. >> and i thought, this won't last long. >> reporter: that character was not supposed to be the way you ended up playing her? >> no, she was written very slovenly. my take on her-and-that relationship between her and al bundy, there had to be something hot between the two of them to sustain the marriage for so many years. i went into the audition all dolled up. >> catch a big one, al? >> i all right have, peg. >> you would be surprised how

many people would call our costumer wanting her clothes, people wanted to look like her. >> reporter: it was the '80s. where is the wig? >> it's in a big plexiglass box. people are like, do you wear it? i'm like, no, i don't wear it. >> reporter: there so much more to katie segal than mouthy peg bundy as we discover in her memoir. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: there's that beautiful singing voice, which we've heard on futurama. ♪ i will always love you >> reporter: and we'll soon hear again and see her in abc's 30th anniversary "dirty dancing" remix. >> you're in the new dirty dancing. skpngets i'm very dirty. i play vivian. she's kind of the lonesome sexy diversee. >> this is our last night together, lover. >> reporter: and there was a time in her youth when kiss came to town.

>> there was just this band of boys sitting at the table, and i was their waitress. and i sang them a song and one thing led to another, and i started this romance with gene. >> you say that very nonchalantly. >> well, it's so long ago. >> reporter: segal's first love was music. >> backing singer for bette midler? >> i was a harlette. >> i worked with her on and off for about five years. >> i heard bob dylan fired you? >> yeah, he fired me. he fired all the singers. i was so intimidated that i knew i was singing the wrong parts. but i would never say anything. >> i remember the days of these skirts? >> i do too. this is what i wanted to do when i grow up. and this is still in there. >> reporter: her mum, a screen writer, her dad a director.

both of your parents died when you were young? >> my mother had been ill for a big part of my life. it wasn't as big a shock as my father, who i had spoken to the day before and he died on a television set. he was killed in a helicopter accident. one of the reasons i wanted to say some of this in the book, is that my way of dealing things in the moment, was to very much check out. was to kind of anesthetize myself, numb myself. and it wasn't until i changed my lifestyle that i felt the full impact of those things. >> reporter: segal first took diet pills prescribed by a doctor. learned if you feel bad, pop a pill. 15 years of booze and happy pills became a problem. >> i had a drug and alcohol problem that lasted through my 20s. >> reporter: until a chance meeting on a tv set. >> i met a person on a job that was sober, and she talked to me

about it. suddenly, out of nowhere popped up a lot of people that were living a life clean and sober. and i didn't really know about that. >> reporter: you've been clean for 30 years? >> yeah. >> reporter: that's a massive achievement? >> massive, i know. one day at a time. >> reporter: still? >> still. what i've learned is that i can do anything for 24 hours. >> reporter: reasonable of course there's the bastard executioner and sons of anarchy. >> you look me in the eye and you promised me you wouldn't hurt tara! >> reporter: she was golden globe nominated per peg bundy, she won for sons of anarchy, a role created by her husband. >> to my husband, i love you. i'm so glad you're the boss of me. >> reporter: he was the ep, she was the star. >> i think at a certain point, we just stop talking about work at home and dealt with our three children. >> reporter: had she taken early

advice, this might never have happened. you were told you were not a tv person. >> yeah, i met a casting director who said, you will never work in television. >> reporter: why? >> this was in the days of dynasty and dallas. when everybody on television looked extremely glamourous. i was in musicians, i was in a band. i wore a lot of black. years later when my struggling music career was not going full steam ahead, i said yes to being in a rock musical. >> that led to a role on "mary." then came "married with children." >> sex tonight, peg? >> reporter: for 11 years, the secret sauce, chemistry. . >> we loved each other instantly. he's such an every man, down-to-earth guy. >> reporter: now playing a slightly similar role on "modern family." >> he has a hot wife again.

i just had to throw that in. >> reporter: segal still acting and still making music. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: this summer, touring the l.a. area with the band the reluctant apostles. >> well, we want to do it in a comfortable way. >> we're not getting in a band. >> reporter: and now a slightly reluctant author. so this was a kind of book by accident? >> i had written pieces, just writing about my life, with the intention of giving it to my children at some point. i'm pretty private, actually. but apparently not anymore. >> reporter: it's peg bundy behind the curtain, warts and all, but don't hold your breath for a revival. it seems that all these shows are coming back in one form or another. >> i don't think this one will. >> reporter: that's okay, we all have "married with children" memories. i'm nick watt for "nightline," in los angeles. next up, back street's back. now they have puppies.

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and finally here tonight, i'm a little embarrassed to admit i never even knew this was a thing, national puppy day. ♪ ♪ it's one of america's most adorable days. national puppy day. a day to celebrate our four-legged friends and promote adoption. and entirely unsurprisingly, social media has been barking with puppy posts. lin manuel miranda tweeting that one time a stray starving puppy followed us on the beach and changed our lives forever. love you tobilo. john lewis also wishing everyone a happy national puppy day. and betty white admitting her furry friend may be 12 but he's my baby. >> is your name buster? >> and then this from the san francisco giants. >> puppy, puppy, puppy. >> we even heard from the u.s. department of defense touting their puppy program, saying only the most skilled puppies become

military working dogs. now the backstreet boys giving new meaning to their hit song "i'll never break your heart." ♪ ♪ >> the boy band writing, they'll never break your heart, they'll never make you cry. to be honest, i'm more of a cat person, but fair enough. don't send me hate tweets, i also like dogs a lot. thank you for watching "nightline "nightline." and goodnight.