Jerry O’Connell addresses brutal Giuliana Rancic breakup after she blasted him in memoir
Jerry O’Connell doesn’t dispute his ex Giuliana Rancic’s brutal description of their breakup.
More than a decade after Rancic released her “Going Off Script” memoir, Kelly Ripa asked O’Connell whether he really dumped the entertainment reporter over an intercom.
In the 2015 tell-all, Rancic claimed her then-boyfriend told her, “Nope, sorry, homegirl. Things change, but you take care, OK?”
On Monday’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast episode, O’Connell confessed he doesn’t “recall [his] exact wording” during their 2004 split.
“I can’t deny that I said that,” the “Jerry Maguire” star, 52, noted. “It doesn’t sound like something I would say, but again, if I was writing a memoir, it made for a good quote.”
With that in mind, he “applaud[ed]” Rancic, 51, for “using colorful dialogue and everything” in her book.
He did give context to the “poor” breakup — after dubbing himself a “terrible boyfriend” to the journalist between 2003 and 2004.
O’Connell issued an apology before admitting, “[Another woman] was inside my condominium. … Giuliana Rancic wanted entry into my condominium. Thank goodness, buzzer, gate, security. I paid a pretty hefty homeowners’ fee for these things. Cameras and everything.”
The actor did not clarify who the mystery individual was, with Ripa guessing Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell or O’Connell’s now-wife, Rebecca Romijn.
O’Connell, noted their relationship “was [already] in trouble” by this time and played coy on whether they were exclusive.
“I said, ‘I did not know you were coming. You can’t come here unannounced,’” he remembered. “Notice no one had a key, so the relationship was not like that. There was no warning, and I didn’t want someone coming in because I didn’t want any confrontation.”
When Ripa, 55, pointed out to O’Connell elsewhere in the podcast that Rancic called him out for cheating with Halliwell, 53, he praised the “great” way she described his infidelity in the memoir.
Rancic, whom he labeled a “smart girl,” wrote, “[He gave me] as much emotion as the customer service representative who tells you your bags missed the flight.”
Rancic’s rep did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
O’Connell shared another story about a famous ex during the interview, making a rare comment about going on “literally one date” with Sarah Michelle Gellar.
“We were kids, and Sarah Michelle dumped my ass,” he told listeners. “She was the smartest one. Sarah Michelle took one look at me and was like, ‘I’ve got to get away from this drunk. One and done.’”
He highlighted her now-husband Freddie Prinze Jr.’s jiu-jitsu training, insisting he doesn’t “want any beef” with the “beautiful family.”
