On Election Day of all days, Kirstie Alley managed to infiltrate the news cycle with the startling confession that she fell in love with co-stars Patrick Swayze and John Travolta.
With Swayze, Alley told Entertainment Tonight that the feeling was mutual on the set of the 1985 TV mini-series North and South. She was married to Parker Stevenson and he was married to Lisa Niemi. Quoth Alley: "We did not have an affair. But again, I think what I did was worse. Because I think when you fall in love with someone when you're married, you jeopardize your own marriage and their marriage. It's doubly bad."
In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters to air Friday in full on 20/20, Alley called Travolta -- her co-star in the Look Who's Talking movies -- the "greatest love" of her life. She didn't pursue a relationship because of allegiance to Parker, to whom she was wed from 1983 to 1997.
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On Wednesday morning, Good Morning America aired more from Walters' interview, with Alley's response to rumors of his sexuality. Travolta, married to Kelly Preston since 1991, has seen his personal life increasingly under the microscope, most recently with a pair of lawsuits by male massage therapists accusing the actor of sexual assault. The cases were dismissed in May.
"I know John. With all my heart and soul, he's not gay," says Alley, who is a devoted Scientologist, along with Travolta. "I think it's some weird way, in Hollywood, if someone gets big enough and famous enough, and they're not out doing drugs and they're not womanizing, what do you say about them?"
Alley is currently competing on the all-stars edition of ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Her memoir The Art of Men, in which she tells all about her affairs of the heart, hit stores Tuesday.
Twitter: @ErinLCarlson
Email: erin.carlson@thr.com
