Years before she reunited Richard Gere, her co-star Pretty Woman, with Runaway Bride in 1999, Julia Roberts fled the altar in real life. The largest female film star in America was set to walk along the aisle with her Flatlin leading man, Kiefer Sutherland on the 20th century Fox lot on June 14, 1991. But destiny — Jason Patric, Sutherland’s best friend — intervened. As people report in a blockbuster, Roberts ran off to Ireland with Patric hours before the wedding.
Kiefer Sutherland reportedly raged about his mate’s betrayal in the days after his fiancé and his best friend skipped town together. “I’m going to tear him limb from limb when I get hold of Jason,” he’s rumoured to have said that at that time. “That serpent pretended to be my best friend and was after my girl all the time.”
Three decades forward, though, and the stars of the Lost Boys make podcast appearances together without ripping limbs. In a recent podcast episode, the duo sat down with former Smallville star in Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum for an extended dialogue about that 1987 horror favourite — where their friendship started — and grew up in the business.
At first it seemed that Rosenbaum would completely escape the Roberts question. But the actor brought up the subject in a classic Lex Luthor move at the close of the interview. While both Sutherland and Patric have spoken in separate interviews over the decades about the 30-year-old scandal, this is the first time that they have addressed it while sitting side by side.
After Rosenbaum asked the question, friends first hammered and hawked, coordinating the answer on how they reconciled. “For over twenty years we haven’t been seeing each other,” said Patric before Sutherland interrupted to note, “I don’t know if it had been that long.” After agreeing that the reunion took place in the mid-2000s, Sutherland told us about what had happened in 1991, the fateful day that People said began when Roberts and Patric met for lunch from a turkey burger. By that evening, they were bound to Britain, and Sutherland was left with his favourite bird, a turkey, a 4-level wedding cake. “The thing is, she’s not here in this room,” Patric says on the podcast, referring to Roberts. “So I feel strange talking about what she told me or what she told Kiefer because she can speak for herself. But the large stuff [reported by] the press, being invited to the wedding and taking off with the bride — that’s all bull****. Kiefer’s specific relationship, and what they were at the time, that’s theirs.”
Rosenbaum then goes to Sutherland for a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, where he talked to Roberts about the end of his romance and friendship with Patric. The actor says, “I made a joke about a country song…’I lost my collection and my dog and my best friend, and my best friend missed me. “That has been a hard time for me and for both of them, I think it has been an uncomfortable time.”
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