John Stamos admits he felt ‘emasculated’ in marriage to Rebecca Romijn

‘Full House’ star was married to actor and model from 1998 to 2004

John Stamos has opened up about feeling “emasculated” during his marriage to ex-wife Rebecca Romijn.

The Full House alum, 60, recently appeared on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, where he admitted that disappointment in his own career put a strain on his relationship with the model.

“I loved her and I thought she was super talented. So I was happy to do that,” he told host Howard Stern, per People. “But I forgot about my own stuff. She was taking off and I just wasn’t paying attention to mine. And it wasn’t her fault.”

The Scream Queens star explained that he had experienced “enough fame” at the time of their relationship, which lasted from 1997 to 2004, and wanted to “put the spotlight” on Romijn. At the time, Stamos had wrapped filming Full House three years before. But as Romijn skyrocketed to fame by starring in the X-Men franchise, Stamos acknowledged: “I think that she outgrew me.”

Speaking to Stern, he admitted that he was only putting in about “50, 60 per cent” effort into both his marriage and career. “I didn’t work on anything. I didn’t work as hard as I should at anything,” Stamos said, before adding that his “life would have been a lot better” had he put in the extra effort.

Stamos and Romijn began dating in 1994 after they met at one of her Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. They were engaged in December 1997 and tied the knot the following September. The former couple announced their separation in April 2004 and Stamos filed for divorce that August. The two finalised their divorce in March 2005.

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Since then, the Glee star has gone on to marry model and actor Caitlin McHugh. They tied the knot in February 2018 and welcomed their son, Billy, in April 2018. Meanwhile, Romijn started dating fellow actor Jerry O’Connell the same year she separated from Stamos. They announced their engagement in September 2005 and were married at their home in California in July 2007. They share 13-year-old twin daughters, Charlie and Dolly.

The Fuller House star has been promoting his memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, published on 24 October. Speaking to People about his new book, Stamos revealed that he once considered Romijn to be “the devil” while going through their divorce. On 19 October, he told the outlet: “In my mind back then, she was the devil, and I just hated her. I couldn’t believe how much I hated her, and it ruined my life.”

He described his first marriage as “shattering” and revealed that issues in their relationship “went on [for] years and years”.

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“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, who’s been sober for eight years, noted that one of the steps he learned in Alcoholics Anonymous is to “lay out all your grievances” and “everything that people did to you”. As he spoke to his sponsor about his grievances with Romijn, he recalled his sponsor telling him: “Now what part did you play in that?”

He eventually realised that he played “some part” in the divorce, saying: “You start thinking, it’s like: ‘Oh, she wasn’t the devil. Maybe I was as much to blame as her.’”