Sally Field, 78, Still Wows Audiences With Her Honesty! – Story Of The Day!

“Okay, this is going to be a shocker,” she said, pausing just long enough to let the audience lean in. “It’s Burt Reynolds.” Laughter filled the studio, but Field didn’t soften or backtrack. She explained that kissing him on camera was awkward, adding with characteristic humor that there was “a lot of drooling involved.” The delivery was playful, but the honesty behind it was unmistakable.

The comment resonated far beyond its comedic value because Reynolds wasn’t just a former co-star. He was one of the most significant figures in Field’s personal life.

Field and Reynolds met in the mid-1970s while filming Smokey and the Bandit, a runaway hit that cemented Reynolds as a box-office phenomenon and helped push Field further into mainstream stardom. Their on-screen chemistry translated into a highly publicized off-screen romance that lasted nearly five years. At the time, they were one of Hollywood’s most photographed couples, emblematic of a glamorous era built on charisma and excess.

Reynolds, already a dominant presence in the industry, played a role in shaping Field’s career during those years. But while the public saw a golden couple, Field’s later reflections revealed a far more complicated reality. The romance, she has said, was not without affection or genuine connection, but it was also emotionally destabilizing and, ultimately, painful.

Her anecdote about the kiss was not an attempt to embarrass Reynolds, who died in 2018 at age 82. Instead, it reflected Field’s long-standing refusal to sanitize the past. She has consistently resisted the urge to romanticize relationships simply because time has passed or because the other person is no longer alive.

That refusal became even clearer in her 2018 memoir, In Pieces, where she wrote candidly about her life, including her relationship with Reynolds. She described it as “confusing and complicated,” acknowledging that while there was love, the dynamic was ultimately not healthy for her. In interviews following the book’s release, she went further, saying plainly that Reynolds was “not good for me in any way.”

Field has linked those patterns to her early life. She has spoken openly about a difficult childhood and a deeply troubling relationship with her stepfather, experiences that shaped how she understood love, approval, and self-worth. Those unresolved dynamics, she has said, followed her into adulthood and influenced her choices, including her relationship with Reynolds.

One of the most striking aspects of Field’s honesty is how she addresses the gap between her own memories and Reynolds’s public statements. After their breakup, Reynolds often referred to Field as “the love of my life” and later expressed regret over their separation. Field did not deny that the relationship mattered, but she rejected the idea that his retrospective narrative matched her lived experience.