There's a time-honored history in Hollywood of co-stars falling in love both onscreen and off, but, in real life, no happy endings are guaranteed. In the 1980s, Jane Seymour fell in love with another actor while they were working together, but it ended suddenly and sadly. While their secret romance was brief, the Dr. Quinn star says her heartbreak is apparent in the film. It also led to a long-time friendship.
Seymour opened up about falling in love on the set of one of her movies—and keeping the relationship private at the time—when she recently attended the TCM Classic Film Festival. Read on to find out which star she fell for and why their genuine love story fit so well with the story of their characters.
RELATED: Will Smith Says This Co-Star Shut Him Down When He Tried to Date Her.
Seymour fell in love on the set of a romance.
Eddie Sanderson/Getty ImagesIn 1980, the actor starred in Somewhere in Time alongside the late Christopher Reeve. The movie is about a man named Richard, who travels from 1980 to 1912 to find a woman, Elise, who he knows he's meant to fall for. The two characters are unable to stay happily together in the end, but their souls remain connected.
What you see onscreen is "the real thing," Seymour says.
Derek Hudson/Getty ImagesSeymour shared that she and Reeve developed real, serious feelings for each other while their characters were doing the same.
"Well, here comes the story that I'm officially telling you now, because Chris and I, when we made the film, we literally fell madly in love," Seymour said at the TCM Classic Film Festival, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. "When you see this film, you will see the real thing. But we didn't let anyone know. So a few of the people who worked on the show kind of sussed it out, but we were as subtle as we could be about it."
RELATED: For more celebrity news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
The love affair ended suddenly.
Richard Blanshard/Getty ImagesSeymour had talked publicly about her relationship with Reeve in the past, but she went further into detail during the Classic Film Festival. According to the actor, she and Reeve "were madly in love and life was wonderful. We were both single; it was a fantastic, amazing experience." But, on they day they were set to film a love scene that takes place right before their characters lose each other, he received news that changed everything.
As Seymour explained, Reeve found out that this ex-girlfriend, Gae Exton, was pregnant. He told Seymour about it before they got to work that day.
"I then had to put my big-girl pants on," Seymour said. "When I watch that scene [in Somewhere in Time], I can literally see the tears coming halfway up my eyeballs. And I just kept saying, 'You can't cry, you can't cry, you can't cry, you're happy. Elise is really, really happy right now.'"
Reeve and Seymour remained friends through the rest of his life.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesReeve went on to welcome two children, Matthew and Alexandra Reeve, with Exton. He married Dana Morosini in 1992, and they welcomed a son, William Reeve. Reeve and Morosini were together until his death in 2004.
"He was a lovely man. Brilliant, too: very smart, a great concert pianist, and a funny, funny guy," Seymour told Stellar of Reeve in 2017. "He liked to do things alone—to fly alone, to sail alone, to ride horses. He was all about doing these amazing things, none of which he could do after the accident [in 1995, Reeve became tetraplegic after falling from a horse, and died in 2004]. He was very special and I was very proud of him.”
She honored him in a special, personal way.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for TCMSeymour was married twice prior to falling in love with Reeve and twice after. She has four children and honored her good friend Reeve by naming one of them Kristopher after him.
"We remained really, really close friends, literally until the day he died," Seymour said at the TCM event. "I have to believe that I will one day see him somewhere in time."
RELATED: 12 Onscreen Couples With Huge Age Gaps.
