The passing of screen legend Burt Reynolds in 2018, following a long battle with various health issues, was mourned by millions globally. While the actor left behind an immense legacy on screen, perhaps the most heartwarming and revealing tribute came from the woman he himself called his only true love: Sally Field.
Field, who recently turned 79, had maintained decades of public silence regarding the pair’s intense, high-profile relationship. However, in the wake of Reynolds’ death, she finally opened up, providing a nuanced and often painful account of their years together.
Reynolds, despite his many romances, had publicly admitted that Field was the woman who defined his life. In a remarkably candid interview with Vanity Fair late in his life, he revealed that the Gidget actress was the star he would remember for the rest of his days.
Love at First Sight on the Set of Smokey and the Bandit
The two met on the set of the 1977 blockbuster Smokey and the Bandit. Reynolds fell instantly and completely in love with Field, a passion so strong that he personally championed her casting, overriding skeptical filmmakers who reportedly didn’t think she was “sexy enough” for the role. Burt stood up for her, and Field eventually landed the part, a favor she never forgot.
The highly publicized couple quickly seemed like a match made in Hollywood heaven, going on to co-star in other films, including 1978’s Hooper and The End. For a time, Field was deeply happy with the charismatic star. She later recalled that Reynolds “gave me a feeling that I was sexy, and I wanted to be everything he ever wanted.”
The press followed their every step as Burt and Sally dated on and off for nearly five turbulent years. But in 1980, the fairytale relationship abruptly ended, a split that was far more complicated than the public realized.
The Weight of Stardom and Control
In her critically acclaimed memoir, In Pieces, Sally Field offered a searingly honest view of their dynamic, revealing how the charismatic, award-winning star used the weight of his own stardom to control his romantic partner.
“By the time we met, the weight of his stardom had become a way for Burt to control everyone around him, and from the moment I walked through the door, it was a way to control me. We were a perfect match of flaws,” Field wrote in her memoir. She added that she had “blindly I fell into a rut that had long ago formed in my road, a pre-programmed behavior as if in some past I had pledged a soul-binding commitment to this man.”
What started as the beginning of a potential Hollywood love story for the history books developed instead into a painful nightmare for Field.
“What happened is that I stopped existing. I dressed for him, looked for him, walked for him,” she confessed. Though he asked her to marry him many times, she knew his heart wasn’t truly committed to the promise. “I knew his heart wasn’t in it,” she said. “We’d have ended up just feeling terrible.”
Decades of Regret and Silence
Following their separation, both actors moved on to date other people. But Burt Reynolds never truly forgot Sally Field, often admitting that the relationship’s fallout was likely his fault. “I miss her terribly,” he said publicly. “Even now, it’s hard on me. I don’t know why I was so stupid. Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up.”
The actor harbored this regret for more than 40 years. For her part, Field refused to have any contact with him, maintaining a decades-long silence and refusing to engage in any form of relationship with her former boyfriend during the last years of his life. While the exact reason behind the final break-up was never fully clarified, rumors of Burt’s infidelity circulated at the time, which Field reportedly found embarrassing, making her feel like a fool.
Finding Peace in Her Memoirs
In the wake of his passing in 2018, however, Field finally decided to break her long silence and publicly admitted a feeling that would have likely broken Reynolds’ heart had he known it earlier.
As per reports, she revealed: “There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy.”
In a further interview with NPR, Field, now 79, offered more insights into her genuine feelings for Reynolds and the complexity of their bond. “I’ve always thought of him rather nostalgically… He was a very important part of my life, but for a tiny little part of my life. I was only with him for about three years and then maybe two years on and off after that. But it was so hugely important in my own existence, my own movement as a person.”
Field also acknowledged a surprising relief upon his death before the publication of her memoir. She admitted that Reynolds would likely not have appreciated some of the passages in the book, particularly where she described her former love partner as “confusing, complicated and hurtful.”
“I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have,” she said.
Though Burt Reynolds passed away in 2018 at the age of 82 after a reported heart attack with his family by his side, Field’s eventual admissions suggest that the deep feelings he carried for her were, in some way, reciprocated long after their relationship ended.
