Patti LuPone has opened up about her "painful" relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Kevin Kline.
The Broadway star, 76, met the "No Strings Attached" actor, 77, in the '70s when they were both students at New York City's performing arts conservatory, Juilliard.
A not-so-meet-cute
In a new interview with the New Yorker, Patti revealed that she "took an instant dislike to" Kevin.
"He looked like Pinocchio to me," the Tony winner told the publication. "He had skinny legs, and he was tall, and I didn't really see the handsomeness."
© Ron Galella Collection via GettyHowever, after "feeling each other up" during an art-appreciation course, Patti and Kevin embarked on a "turbulent on-and-off relationship" that lasted for seven years.
"He was a Lothario," she recalled. "It was a painful relationship. I was his girlfriend when he wanted me to be his girlfriend.
"But if there was somebody else, he would break up with me and go out with that person. And I, for some reason, stuck it out — until I couldn't stick it out anymore."
© Getty ImagesThe New Yorker reached out to Kevin for comment, and he agreed that their relationship had been "fraught".
"We fought all the time. In the company, we were known as the Strindbergs," he added, appearing to reference Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg, who was known for his tumultuous relationships.
Patti also touched on her relationship with Kevin during a 2010 appearance on The View, calling him a "very beautiful man" who "sort of took advantage of that while we were together."
© Getty ImagesIn 2022, she called Kevin her "first big love," and while previously hinting there were no hard feelings between the pair, describing him as a "terrific man", she admitted they wouldn't be going on any double dates.
"For me that was my first big love," she told People of the "Sophie's Choice" actor. "And Kevin was also a player, and it was hard. That was incredibly hard on me. He exhausted my heart."
Speaking of their relationship status now, she added: "We have found a place where we can actually communicate and be friends. I think we can be friends.
"I don't think we can double date," she added at the time. "But I think Kevin and I can at least talk to each other."
© Getty ImagesPatti went on to marry camera operator Matthew Johnston in 1988. The couple exchanged vows on stage at Broadway's Vivian Beaumont Theater during a break from performing Anything Goes.
"On a day off from Anything Goes, I got married on the stage of the Vivian Beaumont," Patti said during an episode of Thirteen, calling their wedding day "a treasured memory in my family history."
Two years later, on November 21, 1990, they welcomed their only child, son Joshua Luke Johnston.
© Kevin MazurKevin, meanwhile, has two children, son Owen and daughter Greta, with his wife, Phoebe Cates, whom he married in 1989 after they met at an audition seven years earlier.
The audition was for Kevin's hit movie, "The Big Chill," and while he was cast, Phoebe missed out on a role, so it wasn't until they met a few years later at the New York Public Theater that their romance blossomed.
Kevin initially had doubts about their compatibility, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2002: "When I first met Phoebe, I remember thinking, 'She's too happy to be with me, she's too enthusiastic about life. .... What'll we talk about?'"
