Anna Lazarus Caplan is a writer-reporter for PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work previously appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, Eater and other publications.
"Oh boy, shall I really name names here?" the actress wondered. "Okay, this is gonna be a shocker, hold on folks," she said, before she quickly added, "Burt Reynolds."
As the audience and fellow guest Idina Menzel laughed, Field dished a bit more about smooching the late actor, with whom she first starred in 1977's Smokey and the Bandit.
"It was just not something he really did very well," she said with a laugh. "I could go into detail, but you don't want to hear it."
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But Cohen pressed, asking if she was speaking about "tongue," to which Field responded, "No ... just a lot of drooling was involved."
Field and Reynolds dated for five years in the late '70s and early '80s after meeting on Smokey and the Bandit and had a tumultuous relationship, as Field detailed in her 2018 memoir In Pieces, which came out days after Reynolds' death at the age of 82.
Since then, the two-time Oscar winner has been outspoken about their love connection — including Reynolds' late-in-life assertion that Field was "the one that got away" and the love of his life.
In an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America shortly after Reynolds' death, the actress revealed what her time was really like with the Boogie Nights star, saying he was "a complicated man."
"We had known each other about three days, four days at that point [during the filming of Smokey and the Bandit]. It was instantaneous, and four days felt like four years," Field said.
"You can see it in our faces. We were sort of, you know, deeply entangled," the Steel Magnolias actress told Sawyer.
"That nature of it wasn't just, 'Oh, this is a love affair,' " she said. "There was some ingredient between us having to do with my caretaking and him needing to be taken care of."
It wasn't the first time Field coyly addressed Reynolds' public comments about their relationship and how it ended. Speaking to PEOPLE in 2015, Field said she had "no response" to his proclamations.
"Any response I would have would belong to him," she said.
I could go into detail, but you don't want to hear it." When host Andy Cohen and fellow guest star Idina Menzel encouraged her to dish more, Field simply explained, "Just a lot of drooling was involved." Her response quickly put an end to further questioning.
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Field said Reynolds had reimagined in his 2015 memoir “But Enough About Me” that she was the love of his life. “He had somehow invented in his rethinking of everything that I was more important to him than he had thought, but I wasn't,” she said.
The Academy Award-winning actress said, “Best without a doubt is James Garner. I mean, he gets it.” James Garner must have been quite the kisser, because just her recollection of the kiss they shared was enough to make Sally flustered. As for the worst? That honor went to media darling Tommy Lee Jones.
Following the “Gunsmoke” star's death, Field did not attend his funeral, but did release a statement. “There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even 40 years later,” the “Amazing Spider-Man” actress told Page Six at the time.
Burt Reynolds made a shocking claim on the "Today" show on Thursday when he said he fell in love with his ex-girlfriend, Sally Field, when she was just 7 years old. Reynolds is now 82 and Field is 71, and the two dated for about five years in the late 1970s and 80s.
She also explained to the New York Times in 2018 that their relationship was “loving” but “really complicated and hurtful to me.” In her memoir, “In Pieces,” which was released shortly after Reynolds' death, Field portrayed him as charismatic and swaggering, the New York Times reported.
One newspaper reported that in Kansas alone he had kissed 1,000 women. The title “The Most Kissed Man in America” was given him and it would appear that no one disagreed! After resigning from the Navy with Rear Admiral's rank, Richmond Hobson was elected as a United States Congressman, representing Alabama.
V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a U.S. Navy sailor embracing and kissing a total stranger—a dental assistant—on Victory over Japan Day ("V-J Day") in New York City's Times Square on August 14, 1945.
Starting in 1971, Shore had a six-year public romance with actor Burt Reynolds, who was 20 years her junior. Her daughter, Melissa Montgomery, is the owner of the rights to most of Shore's television series.
People have asked, "Who was Burt Reynolds married to when he died?" His last marriage was to Loni Anderson, whom she divorced in 1994. At his death, he was not in any known relationship.
Sally has been married twice, first to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1973. They had two sons together, Peter Craig and Eli Craig. Her second marriage was to film producer Alan Greisman from 1984 to 1994.
Sally Field is only 10 years older than Tom Hanks, but she played his mother in "Forrest Gump." In the classic film "Forrest Gump," Sally Field played Tom Hanks' mother. But she's only 10 years older than her costar.
They were two of the sexiest stars of their era but Ocean's 11 siren Angie Dickinson, never seriously dated Burt Reynolds, her costar in the 1969 western Sam Whiskey. “We went out a few times but it was not a real romance, nor it was it destined to be,” Dickinson, 86, tells PEOPLE.
Original "Smokey and the Bandit" director Hal Needham and its big star Burt Reynolds were not interested in making this movie as they were developing another project, Stroker Ace (1983). Reynolds ended up making a very brief cameo appearance though, in the final scene.
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