She also fell in love with Patrick Swayze while starring with him in a miniseries.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 2, 2021. It has since been updated.
Sometimes, emotional cheating can be worse than physically cheating on a partner. It can cause irreparable damage to a relationship if someone has moved on from their current partner in their heart and soul.
Kirstie Alley might have experienced something like that. Alley, who was a small-town girl from the Midwest, started her career with game shows. However, her big break came in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and that became the launchpad for her career, according to The List. "I went from nothing to that," she told Parade. "Literally nothing. That was a big leap because remember it was 1981 and that was a three million dollar film," she added.
Her fame eventually brought her to projects like the sitcom Cheers and Veronica's Closet, and eventually, the movie Look Who's Talking in 1989. It was while working on the latter that she fell for her co-star, John Travolta. He met his future wife, Kelly Preston, the same year but the couple didn't start dating each other until later.
She told Barbara Walters that Travolta is the "greatest love" of her life, according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, she resisted the temptation since she was married to Parker Stevenson at the time. Their marriage lasted from 1983 to 1997.
"Believe me, it took everything that I had, inside, outside, whatever, to not run off and marry John -- and be with John for the rest of my life," she said, via Huffington Post. Walters asked her why she didn't leave Stevenson, to which Alley said, "Because I feel like when you marry someone you’re supposed to work hard at it, and you’re supposed to make it work." While Travolta and she went on to date other people, they have stayed close because of their faith in Scientology.
The Scream Queens actress also confessed to ET (Via Today) that she had an affair with her North and South co-star Patrick Swayze. She revealed that she was in an intense emotional relationship with him even though she was with Stevenson then. They reportedly had an immediate attraction and even though they tried to avoid "going down that road" they fell in love. Back then, Swayze was married to Lisa Niemi. The Dirty Dancing star was married to Niemi until he died in 2009.
"We did not have an affair," she said. "But again, I think what I did was worse. Because I think when you fall in love with someone when you're married, you jeopardize your own marriage and their marriage. It's doubly bad."
This wasn't the only time she felt attracted to someone else while in a long-term relationship. When she was married to her first husband, Bob Alley, who was her high school sweetheart, she also physically cheated on him with someone she identifies as "Jake," as per The Hollywood Reporter. The Alleys were married from 1970 to 1977.
"I didn't have s*x, but I think it was worse when you fall in love with someone else, when you're with someone, and you're plotting and you're planning," she said. "What I did do with Jake was I kissed him. And in my world, in Kirstie world, that meant I had to get a divorce. ... It took a long time [to forgive myself] because I was a horrible person, I destroyed my marriage," she added.
The star also battled addiction in the past and one of the main reasons she went to Hollywood was that. "The truth of how I escaped Kansas is being high," she revealed to Parade. "I was drugged out of my mind on cocaine, and I got in the car, and I left to go to California," she added. She fought her addiction in 1979 and instead uses the money she would have spent on drugs to buy herself flowers every week since then.
For u who don’t know much about me, I used to be a coke head. I quit drugs in 1979 & vowed to spend the same $ weekly on flowers that I’d spent on drugs. I buy & arrange my own flowers as a gift to MYSELF. I buy them in the grocery store ..:)!🥰🌷🌹🌺🌸 pic.twitter.com/WfbcHXjkVC
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) November 22, 2019
She has also faced many turbulent times like losing her mom in a drunk driving accident in 1981. Her mom didn't get to see her daughter become a famous actress. Alley went on to become a mom herself. She and Stevenson had adopted two kids, Lillie and William, who are now in their late 20s.
Kirstie Alley died aged 71 on December 5, 2022.
References:
https://www.thelist.com/311304/heres-what-really-happened-to-kirstie-alley/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kirstie-alley-fell-love-patrick-387187
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kirstie-alley-john-travolta-love-of-my-life-barbara-walters_n_2068934
Cover Images Source: Getty Images | Photo by (R) Handout ; (L) Matt Winkelmeyer
