John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn were one of the hottest couples of the 90s. Fresh off the success of Full House, John met then-model Rebecca in 1994, and they dated for four years before meeting. As their relationship continued, Rebecca made the jump into acting, as she starred in the classic X-Men films, playing the classic comic book character Mystique. The pair eventually got divorced after seven years of marriage.
While they’ve both since met new partners, John opened up about his split from Rebecca in a new interview with People, published on October 18, 2023. “My first marriage was shattering to me. I was shattered for way too long, too,” he told the outlet. Following John’s revealing interview, find out more about his marriage to Rebecca Romijn.
How Did John Stamos Meet Rebecca Romijn?
As John’s hit sitcom Full House was near its end in 1994, he and Rebecca first sparked their romance backstage at a fashion show. She was walking in a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, when she and John met, per Us Weekly. The pair clearly hit it off, and they dated for three more years, until John proposed in 1997.
They Got Married in 1998
After John’s Christmas Eve proposal in 1997, the pair got married about a year later. They said their “I Do’s” on September 19, 1998. Their ceremony was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel. After they got married, Rebecca started hyphenating her surname as Romijn-Stamos.
They Went to Rebecca’s ‘X-Men 2’ Premiere After Separating
While the pair didn’t announce their separation until 2004, John revealed that they’d separated beforehand. He still attended the premiere of the second X-Men movie with her in 2003, but he’s since said that they’d already been separated for months. “You know what was funny about that night, the premiere of X-Men 2. We went to that together, but we had already been split up for like 6 months, I just couldn’t say anything,” he told Howard Stern in a 2006 interview.
They Got Divorced in 2005
After walking the red carpet at X-Men 2 together, the pair eventually announced their separation in 2004. John filed for divorce from her in 2005, and cited “irreconcilable differences.” Rebecca opened up about the divorce in a 2022 discussion on The Talk. “Going through a divorce is terrible, it’s awful,” she said, per Entertainment Tonight. “I was with him for 10 years. Divorce feels like a failure and there were a lot of things that I had to let go of that were very sad.”
What Has John Said About Their Relationship?
John is expected to open up about his relationship with Rebecca in his upcoming memoir If You Would Have Told Me. He opened up about how difficult it was to pen those chapters in the above-mentioned People interview. He spoke about what her perception of her was at the time of the divorce in the interview. “In my mind back then, she was the Devil, and I just hated her,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how much I hated her, and it ruined my life. Looking back, and I talk about it [in the book], because it’s one of the steps in AA where the fourth step is you lay out all your grievances, everything that people did to you. I go like, ‘None.'”
John further explained that he’s since accepted that some of the things that led to their split. “You start thinking, it’s like, ‘Oh, she wasn’t the Devil. Maybe I was as much to blame as her,” he said. “It was very public, and that was very painful. I didn’t write much about that, but it’s hard.” He explained that after the split, he began drinking heavily.
Aside from the memoir, the Fuller House star has also explained that he has nothing but the best wishes for Rebecca and her husband, Jerry O’Connell. “I’m happy for them. That’s it. Just letting go, and — ‘God bless you guys, good for you. I’m here, you’re there.’ But it took me a long time to get to any of that,” he said in a 2021 interview on the Life is Short podcast, via Good Housekeeping. “He seems like a great guy.”
What Has Rebecca Said About Them?
Rebecca has also shared her thoughts on their relationship a few times. When speaking with Jerry on The Talk, she said that she has “a lot of really fun memories” of her time with John. “I have a lot of fond memories of him. A lot of things about him that I miss. But yeah, it’s tricky. It’s a very hard decision to come to when you decide to end a marriage. It was heartbreaking,” she said.
They’ve Both Remarried Since Splitting
In the years since their divorce, both John and Rebecca have started families with new partners, and they seem very happy. After separating from John, she started dating Jerry Maguire star Jerry O’Connell, and they got married in 2007. She had twin daughters, Dolly and Charlie, both 14, with him in 2008.
John married model and actress Caitlin McHugh in February 2018. They have a son Billy, 5, who was born in April of that year.