John Stamos admitted that he had ‘hated’ Rebecca Romijn amid their ‘painful’ and ‘shattering’ divorce which took place in the early 2000s after six years of marriage.
The Full House alum, 60 – who recently revealed he was sexually abused by his babysitter when he was ’10 or 11′ – tied the knot with the X-Men actress, 50, in 1998.
The pair announced their separation in 2004, with the divorce being finalized the following year.
In an excerpt from his memoir If You Would Have Told Me, which hits shelves on October 24 and shared with People, Stamos emotionally recalled his feelings when the marriage had ended, writing: ‘My first marriage was shattering to me. I was shattered for way too long, too.’
Stamos – who is now married to Caitlin McHugh, 38, – added, ‘I mean, a year, okay, good. But it went on [for] years and years.’
‘The Devil’: John Stamos admitted that he had ‘hated’ Rebecca Romijn amid their ‘painful’ and ‘shattering’ divorce which took place in the early 2000s after six years of marriage
In an excerpt from his memoir If You Would Have Told Me, Stamos emotionally recalled his feelings when the marriage had ended, writing: ‘My first marriage was shattering to me; seen in 2022 in L.A.
The star expressed that it had been ‘really difficult’ to write about the divorce in his upcoming book and to go back to the emotions that he had felt at the time.
‘In my mind back then, she was the Devil, and I just hated her,’ he stated. ‘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.”‘
However, as time passed, the General Hospital actor admitted that he came to acknowledge that he had ‘some part’ in their failed marriage. ‘You start thinking, it’s like, “Oh, she wasn’t the Devil. Maybe I was as much to blame as her.”‘
He also explained that he had later felt that the actress ‘was trying to make it work because she cared’ in regards to their marriage before the separation.
John then opened up to People about the hardships of having their divorce occur in the public eye. ‘It was very public, and that was very painful. I didn’t write much about that, but it’s hard.’
The Fuller House star added, ‘It was very much the opinion that she dumped me because her career was going great and mine wasn’t, and that’s humiliating.’
‘I don’t blame her for it. It was just the perception that people took, and maybe they weren’t wrong. She was doing great at that time and I wasn’t.’
‘Shattering’: He emotionally recalled his feelings at the time that the marriage had ended, and told the outlet, ‘My first marriage was shattering to me. I was shattered for way too long, too’; seen in 2003 in NYC
Emotions: ‘In my mind back then, she was the Devil, and I just hated her,’ he stated. ‘I couldn’t believe how much I hated her, and it ruined my life’; seen in 2022 in NYC
The former couple first crossed paths in 1994 while attending the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and three years later, Stamos popped the big question.
They said ‘I do’ in September 1998 at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but announced their separation in 2004, with the actor filing the divorce paperwork a few months later. In 2005, their divorce was finalized.
At the time of the split, John admitted that he did not deal with the end of his marriage in a ‘healthy’ way, stating, ‘That’s when I really started to kind of drink a lot.’
‘But without that, I never would’ve known what a real love is, and I would’ve never straightened up to get someone like Caitlin in my life.’ The star later tied the knot with Caitlin McHugh in 2018, and they share five-year-old son, Billy.
Rebecca has also moved on, and married actor Jerry O’Connell in 2007. The pair share two children together.
John positively reflected on the ‘shattering’ divorce, and told People, ‘If I didn’t go through all the things, all the heartache, I wouldn’t be who I am today. That’s what I hope people take away from it.’
Romijn has also opened up about the divorce in the past as well, and explained on The Talk last year, per Entertainment Tonight, ‘Going through a divorce is awful.’
The Punisher actress continued, ‘It’s terrible. 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.’
Positive reflection: ‘But without that, I never would’ve known what a real love is, and I would’ve never straightened up to get someone like Caitlin in my life,’ he admitted; former couple seen in 2000
Moving on: The star later tied the knot with Caitlin McHugh in 2018, and they share five-year-old son, Billy; the trio seen in August 2022 in Santa Monica
After the divorce: Rebecca has also moved on, and married actor Jerry O’Connell in 2007. The pair share two children together; Romijn seen with O’Connell in 2019 in NYC
Elsewhere in his memoir, revealed that he had been sexually abused by his babysitter when he was just a child.
He stated that he had ‘packed away’ the trauma of the alleged abuse for decades before writing his memoir – which finally forced him to address his past. He wrote he would ‘play dead’ in hopes the abuse would stop.
‘I mean, I knew, it was always in the back, and I do so much advocacy for the [survivors]. I felt like, I remembered it slightly. It has always been there, but I packed it away as people do, right?’
He said he never told anyone of the alleged abuse, writing: ‘I think I told myself, like, ‘”Ah, it’s girls, man.” It was like you’re playing dead so they’ll stop. But it wasn’t totally aggressive. I don’t know, it was not good.’
The You star said he had first thought about his past while writing an acceptance speech for an award he once received for his advocacy for abused children.
He is known for his charity work and has been an ambassador for charity ChildHelp for more than two decades.
Stamos penned, ‘I started to write it, and that’s when it really came out. And then I thought, “No, tonight is not about me. It’s about the kids. I’m going to pack it away again until the right moment.” Otherwise, I’m a phony f***. It’s like, “Come on.”
Traumatic: Elsewhere in his memoir, revealed that he had been sexually abused by his babysitter when he was just a child 9seen as a young boy)
Anticipated release: John has been preparing for the release of his memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, which will be available on October 24
‘It was a page or something, but I felt I had to talk about it. It was weird. It was something that, I think, I was probably like 10 or 11 [when it happened]. I shouldn’t have had to deal with those feelings.’
The actor is now a father to son Billy, five, who he shares with wife Caitlin, 37, and said: ‘But I’ll tell you, if I found out someone was doing that to my son, that’s a totally different story.’
Also in the book, John opens up about his alcohol and substance abuse in the past, including being arrested for a DUI in 2015 which prompted him to get sober.
Stamos is known for starring a variety of projects, such as Full House, General Hospital, Big Shot, and also Netflix’s You.
