John Mellencampis airing out his regrets for being a bad boyfriend toMeg Ryan.
Speaking toEsquirein an interview published on Tuesday, the “Hurts So Good” singer took full responsibility for the on-and-off relationship’s demise, which came to an official end in 2019.
“I love Meg Ryan. I went with her for 10 years. She doesn’t love me so much,” Mellencamp, 71, told the outlet. “She’s a great girl. I’m just a s—ty boyfriend,”
When they first started dating, Mellencamp explained that he and theSleepless in Seattleactress, 61, had both just come out of their “shell.”
“Meg Ryan had just come out of her shell; I had just come out of my shell. We started dating. And we decided to do things on our own instead of having people do stuff for us,” he shared. “We were so f—ing lost. We didn’t know how to do anything.”
John Mellencamp; Meg Ryan.Myrna M. Suarez/Getty Images; Ryan Emberley/amfAR/Getty Images
Myrna M. Suarez/Getty Images; Ryan Emberley/amfAR/Getty Images
The Indiana-born artist and Connecticut native initially dated for three years before callingit quits in August 2014. At the time of their split, a source told PEOPLE that “distance” had led to the relationship’s demise. They then reconciled.
Venturelli/Getty Images
The pair werespotted together againa few months after their first breakup, but Mellencampwent on to date Christie Brinkleyfor over a year.
Just two months before getting back together, Mellencamp said Ryan “hates [him] to death,” during an interview with Howard Stern.
“Oh, women hate me,” Mellencamp said. “I loved Meg Ryan. She hates me to death.”
When Stern asked why the actress would “hate” the singer, Mellencamp elaborated, “I think it’s because I’m a child. I throw fits, I gripe, I complain. I’m moody. Every bad thing that a fella can be, that’s me.”
They called it quits one year after their 2019 engagement, PEOPLE confirmed at the time. “He didn’t want to get married again,” an insider said of Mellencamp, who has been married three times before.
“He loves her, but marriage never seemed to be a part of it,” the source continued. “It’s unclear how important a marriage was to Meg. But they spent a lot of time together and it’s too bad they split. They really got along so well together.”
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Elsewhere in Tuesday’sEsquireinterview, the self-deprecating singer-songwriter expressed how “bad” he thought his first records were.
“If you listened to some of my first albums, you’d ask: Why did you even continue?” said Mellencamp, who is currently on a successful North American tour 47 years after the launch of his music career. “My first records are that bad. My first paintings are that bad. Terrible. But I kept going.”
As for what he’s good at, “I’m a really good smoker,” he joked.
source: people.com
