John Stamos: First Marriage Shattered Me

John Stamos has admitted that for a long time he blamed his ex-wife Rebecca Romijn for the end of their marriage, but upon deeper reflection said he also was to blame.

The actor spoke candidly with People about their split, saying he was "shattered" when their marriage ended. He forced himself to revisit those memories while writing his upcoming memoir, "If You Would Have Told Me," in which he shares the love story with Romijn, 50, whom he divorced in the early 2000s. 

"My first marriage was shattering to me. I was shattered for way too long, too," Stamos, 60, told the outlet. "I mean, a year, OK, good. But it went on [for] years and years."

Stamos, who hasn't seen Romijn since a joint meeting with their divorce attorneys, said he believed that his ex-wife "was trying to make it work because she cared" about him before they eventually parted ways.

"It was very public, and that was very painful. I didn't write much about that, but it's hard," he said.

"It was very much the opinion that she dumped me because her career was going great and mine wasn't, and that's humiliating," he continued. "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."

Stamos went on to acknowledge that his healing process "was not healthy."

"That's when I really started to kind of drink a lot," he recalled. "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."

Stamos married Caitlin McHugh Stamos in 2018 and they have a 5-year-old son named Billy. Romijn has two children with her husband, Jerry O'Connell, whom she wed in 2007.

"If I didn't go through all the things, all the heartache," Stamos said, "I wouldn't be who I am today. That's what I hope people take away from it."

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