The one that got away. It’s been more than 30 years since Burt Reynolds and Sally Field decided to call off their five-year, on-again, off-again relationship, but the Smokey and the Bandit actor revealed in the December issue of Vanity Fair that she’ll always be the one for him.
“I miss her terribly,” he told the magazine of Field, now 69. “Even now, it’s hard on me. I don’t know why I was so stupid. Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up.”
Reynolds, 79, and the Norma Rae actress were once considered one of Hollywood’s “It” couples, costarring in six films together, walking red carpets together, and rising the ranks of the industry together.
They split in the early ‘80s, and each went on to marry other people — Field, to her second husband, producer Alan Greisman, in 1984, and Reynolds to Loni Anderson in 1988. Both marriages ended in 1993.
Back in his heyday, Reynolds was known to be a bit of a ladies’ man in the vein of George Clooney, dating everyone from Adrienne Barbeau to Dinah Shore. Part of his problem, he admitted to Vanity Fair, was that he knew his womanizing ways but couldn’t change them.
“There isn’t anything, no matter how good it is, or how good it tastes, or how much fun it is, where too much is good for you,” he said. “It can destroy you. And you have to learn. It’s a hard lesson. But you have to learn to back off and do as good as you can in your chosen profession. And don’t screw it up. And the best way to screw it up is having too much of a good thing.”
Reynolds previously made headlines after he disappeared from the public eye for a few years, fueling speculation that he was having health and financial issues.
“I’ve lost more money than is possible because I just haven’t watched it,” he admitted. “I’ve still done well in terms of owning property and things like that. But I haven’t been somebody who’s been smart about his money.”
