John Stamos is taking even more accountability for his split from Rebecca Romijn.
The “Full House” star spoke to Howard Stern Tuesday and elaborated on his remarks about his ex-wife while promoting his new memoir, “If You Would Have Told Me.”
Stamos explained to Stern that after he married the former Victoria’s Secret model in 1998, her movie career quickly took off. Romijn joined the “X-Men” franchise in 2000 and started to work with iconic directors like Brian De Palma. Stamo — known primarily for work in television — was fresh off his eight-season stretch on “Full House” and hadn’t done much work since.
“I felt that I became emasculated,” Stamos told Stern, referring to Romijn’s skyrocketing acting career. “I think she outgrew me.”
The actor told the radio personality that, at first, he was happy to take a backseat to his ex’s burgeoning career.
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“I loved her, and I thought she was super talented. So I was happy to do that,” he told Stern, according to additional quotes from the interview provided by 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.”
Stamos said at this point in his life, he was being a bit lazy and was only putting about “50, 60 percent” of his effort into his marriage and career.
“‘Well, my 50% is better than you know 99% of the people out there,” Stamos told Stern of his mentality at the time. “I don’t have to give it all.’”
But Stamos admitted to Stern that he regrets not trying a bit harder.
“I didn’t work on anything. I didn’t work as hard as I should at anything,” he said, noting that his “career and my life would have been a lot better” if he hadn’t given in to being on cruise control at the time.
Stamos’ remarks to Stern come a week after Stamos admitted to People in an interview promoting his new memoir that he once viewed Romijn as “the Devil.”
“I just hated her,” Stamos told People at the time. “I couldn’t believe how much I hated her, and it ruined my life.”
Stamos and Romijn dated for four years before tying the knot. Stamos filed for divorce in August 2004, and it was finalized the following year. Their split made headlines, and Stamos said the visibility and public opinion surrounding their divorce greatly affected him — although he does not go into great detail about how he felt after their divorce in his memoir.
“It was very public, and that was very painful,” Stamos told People. “I didn’t write much about that, but it’s hard. It was very much the opinion that she dumped me because her career was going great and mine wasn’t, and that’s humiliating. I don’t blame her for it.”
Stamos added to People that after their split, he began drinking heavily and eventually hit rock bottom. During his recovery, however, he started to reevaluate his role in the dissolution of their marriage and admitted to the magazine that he had “some part” in their breakup.
“You start thinking … ‘Oh, she wasn’t the Devil. Maybe I was as much to blame as her,’” Stamos said.