John Stamos is thinking back to the time when he made the decision to end whatever romantic chances he may have had with Lori Loughlin.
Before the publication of his biography If You Would Have Told Me, the former Full House actor, who is now 60 years old, said that his relationship with his co-star was “on the verge of turning romantic” before he made a choice on the direction that he wanted his romantic life to go in the long run.
In his book, he referred to his connection with Loughlin, who is now 59 years old, as “the kind of true friendship that’s supposed to be the foundation of a great, lasting relationship.” He also remembered having the impression that a nascent passion was developing between the two of them.
When he was hanging out with his buddies at the after party for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 1994, that’s when he first met his future ex-wife, Rebecca Romijn. In an interview with InStyle, Stamos claimed that he came to the realization that he needed to make a decisive choice, and that the choice was between pursuing Loughlin and beginning something fresh with the model.
“In my head it was like… the two Sandys in Grease!” he said. “It was just like that!”
Stamos ultimately decided to marry Romijn, who is now 50 years old; the pair started dating two months after they broke up, and they were married in September 1998. (The couple divorced in 2004 after having been married for a total of six years.)
“The end of my first marriage was a traumatic experience for me. Last week, he recounted to PEOPLE how he had been broken for an excessively long period of time. “I suppose a year is fine and satisfactory. But it continued for years and years after that.”
Stamos went on to say that writing the chapters regarding his previous marriage was “really difficult” for him because to the emotional toll that was taken on him as he revisited his sentiments from the time period.
“In my mind back then, she was the Devil, and I just hated her,” he admittedly said. “I couldn’t believe how much I hated her, and it ruined my life.”
He went on to explain that back in those days, “One of the stages in AA, the fourth step, is that you lay out all of your complaints, everything that others did to you. Then I said, “Oh, she did this, she did that, blah, blah, she did blah, blah,” and continued on with my monologue. And then my sponsor asks, ‘Now what role did you play in that?’ “And I’m just like, ‘None.'”
After repeated prodding from his sponsor, the actor from Big Shot ultimately came to the realization that he had “some part” in the failure of his previous marriage. “At that point, you begin to wonder things like, ‘Oh, she wasn’t the Devil. It’s possible that I was just as much to fault as she was.'”
Despite the fact that he and Loughlin’s relationship never developed into a romantic one, they have managed to keep their friendship strong. Stamos has continued to support Loughlin and defended her reputation in the aftermath of the college admissions scandal that broke in 2019.
“What she did is what she did,” he said, pointing out that he did not “condone” her participation in the plot. We are all capable of making errors. It does not matter how large or tiny the obligation is; what matters is how you respond to it…. She dealt with it better than the majority of people.”