The couple in the film ended up staying together until 1971 before separating, during which time they added a daughter to the family. They divorced in 1972, and Antoinette later remarried. Billy Edwards was struck by a car and killed in 1995.
The director Allan King lived with the Edwards family before, during and after the course of filming. He chose them not out of proximity, though, but because they had the most personality out of all the other married candidates.