John Stamos Breaks Silence: The Divorce That Still Stings

When you’re famous, your heartbreak becomes public record. John Stamos learned that lesson the hard way, and decades later, he’s still processing the end of his marriage to Rebecca Romijn.

During a June 10 appearance on Bobbi Althoff’s“The Really Good Podcast,”the Full House actor opened up about a wound that clearly hasn’t fully healed.“It broke my heart. I didn’t want to get divorced,”Stamos admitted. What makes that confession hit harder is the context: he and Romijn dated for four years before tying the knot in 1998, and six years later it was over. The divorce was finalized in 2005, yet here he is in 2026 still revisiting the pain.

What’s striking is Stamos’s grace about Romijn’s life now. She married actor Jerry O’Connell in December 2007 and they share twin daughters, Charlie and Dolly, 17. Rather than dwelling on bitterness, Stamos acknowledged,“She wanted to [get divorced]…she has a nice life, she married another guy, they have kids, they’re doing great.”That’s the kind of maturity that takes real work.

In his 2023 memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, Stamos laid bare the specifics—the diverging ambitions, the distance that grew, the moments when a relationship shifts from phase to permanent fracture. He wrote about losing himself as she ascended, about conversations about kids and family dreams that no longer felt mutual, about how“She smiles at me a little less, doesn’t look me in the eyes over dinner.”It reads like a slow-motion goodbye.

Interestingly, Stamos mentioned recently bumping into O’Connell, 52, at a party.“He was very sweet. He was very nice…super nice. He couldn’t have been sweeter.”That’s generous, given the circumstances. What’s even more telling? Stamos hasn’t seen Romijn since their divorce. Two decades of silence, while she’s built a full life with someone else.

He’s moved on too—married actress and model Caitlin McHugh in 2018, and they share a son, Billy, 8. But sometimes moving forward doesn’t mean the past stops mattering. Sometimes it just means you learn to carry it differently.