Lessons in love! Justin Hartley‘s view on long-term relationships has changed for the better since he married Sofia Pernas.
“It’s incredible when you’re not forcing things. It doesn’t have to be that hard,” Hartley, 44, revealed to Haute Living on Tuesday, December 28, about feeling “so happy” since he reconnected with Pernas, 32. “You just meet the right person and you just go, ‘Oh, this is amazing. It’s just so wonderful!’ You’re so attracted and so attached to this person. You just love this person so much.”
The This Is Us star, who quietly exchanged vows with Pernas in May, gushed about how “everything is easier” with the soap actress in his life.
“Even though we’ve only been married a few months, it’s hard to remember what it was like without her. When I remet her, I just knew. It’s so interesting about the human heart and human mind. It’s not a codependency — I’m just at peace with myself,” Hartley noted. “I feel loved and I feel appreciated. I know she feels the same way. We just have a really great relationship and a really terrific family. It’s healthy and it’s wonderful.”
The Smallville alum also reflected on the influence that the Morocco native has had on his state of mind since they started dating.
“I learn from her. She speaks five languages. She’s brilliant, she’s incredible, she’s fun to look at. Everything about her is amazing — she’s just hilarious. She inspires me to want to be a better man,” the Illinois native added. “I want to rise to the occasion because she’s so great. She does make me want to be a better person, and [this kind of love] certainly does complete me.”
Hartley and Pernas initially crossed paths while working on The Young and the Restless together in 2015, one year before his ex-wife Chrishell Stause joined the cast. The Emmy nominee admitted that finding love with the Blood & Treasure star was worth the wait.
“You meet in different capacities. We didn’t work together that closely, and we didn’t work together that long. I knew that she was very kind and very nice. I liked being around her. But I was in a different place in my life. I wasn’t available,” Hartley said of Pernas. “Timing has a lot to do with that. I’m very lucky to not only have found ‘The One,’ but I found her when she was available and the timing was right.”
Us Weekly confirmed in November 2019 that Hartley filed for divorce from Stause, 40, after two years of marriage. The following May, Us broke the news of his relationship with Pernas. The pair sparked marriage rumors one year later after they were spotted wearing matching rings at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. At the time, a source revealed that the couple had a “super intimate” ceremony “very, very recently.”
The insider noted that Hartley’s daughter, Isabella, 17, was present at the private ceremony to show support for her father. The Revenge alum shares his daughter with ex-wife Lindsay Korman, to whom he was married from 2004 until 2012.
The Selling Sunset star, for her part, was briefly linked to Keo Motsepe amid her divorce from Hartley, which was finalized in January. She later moved on with Jason Oppenheim, but after a whirlwind romance, the duo called it quits earlier this month.
