Jean Smart recently opened up and talked about her first dating experience following the death of her husband Richard Gilliland in 2021.
For those unaware, famed American television actor Gilliland died at the age of 71 on March 18, 2021, in Los Angeles after a brief illness. Smart tied the knot with him in 1987, had two sons, Connor and Forrest, and remained engaged to him until his death.
On the Wednesday, May 6 episode Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ In the podcast, the 74-year-old American actress revealed how difficult it was for her to enter into a romantic relationship after losing her husband of 34 years.
She told the host that going on her first date in “over 30” years was “extremely disappointing”.
Smart, who is currently dating an “extremely cute guy” whom she met at a friend’s party, shared, “We went out to dinner and I was an absolute wreck, an absolute wreck.”
“I remember standing outside, looking at myself in this restaurant, just saying, ‘Oh my God, you didn’t say that. Oh, can you be more boring? Can you be less interesting? Oh God. Oh God.’ All night long,’” the Emmy winner recalled.
Specifically, the man gave Smart a “friendly little side squeeze” at the end of the date, and it was at this moment that he told her it was her first date since the death of her husband, Gilliland.
She admitted, “I had never felt older or uglier than at that moment. I went home thinking, ‘I’ll never hear from this guy again.’ It was very disappointing.”
Despite keeping in touch after their first date, what surprised babylon The star was the fact that it “didn’t send him running 100 miles in the other direction.”
It’s worth mentioning that Jean Smart’s new boyfriend is “several years younger” than her, which makes her “crazy.”
