Mandy Moore to people sorry for her divorce: sorry would have been staying

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This is Us is back for its third season, and I couldn’t be happier. We’ve spent time looking back at the origins of Jack and Rebecca’s relationship, made up of false starts, awkward moments and a returning high school sweetheart. We also got to see Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia in their 70s attire. Milo was sans mustache and Mandy looked radiant in a floral print dress with long wavy locks.

Mandy, along with her The is US co-stars Chrissy Metz (Kate) and Susan Kelechi Watson (Beth) are on the cover of the November issue of Glamour magazine. In the accompanying interview, The 34-year-old actress talked about the show and how her real life experiences have helped her convincingly play the strong, yet flawed, Pearson family matriarch.

On her reputation as “America’s sweetheart”:
“I think those particular descriptors prevented me from finding momentum, workwise, because people saw me in one light. There’s more to who I am.”

On her marriage to Ryan Adams:
“I couldn’t control what happened to my immediate family, but I could control starting my own. Not the smartest decision. I didn’t choose the right person.”

On her divorce from Ryan Adams:
“I don’t feel guilty for it. I don’t fault myself for it. When people said, ‘I’m sorry,’ I was like, ‘No. Sorry would have been had I stayed in a very unhealthy situation.’ I didn’t. I found my way out. And when I did, things opened back up again.”

On her role on This is Us:
“I’ve never been a part of something that means so much to the outside world. It means just as much to all of us.”

This Is Us has allowed me to show people that I’m not perpetually stuck in the realm of teen romantic comedies. I’m a woman now. I’ve been married and divorced. I’ve had ups and downs, professionally and personally.”

On her post-This is Us goals, including writing, directing and producing:
“I’m not going to take advantage of the doors that have been opened because of This Is Us to shape the stories that I want to see, then what’s the point? After years of not being able to find things that I felt challenged by, it’s really cool to potentially be in a position to find material and help create it.”

[From Glamour]

While fans may have appreciated Mandy’s honesty about her first marriage, one person who decidedly didn’t was Mandy’s ex, Ryan Adams. The 43-year-old singer responded to Mandy’s comments via Twitter, as adults do.

Way to prove you were the wrong person, Ryan. Of her current fiancé, Dawes lead singer Taylor Goldsmith, she told Glamour that, “He makes me melt. I can imagine no better partner.” She went on to say that, “I view the past as a stepping-stone to get me where I am today. I would gladly weather all of that a million times over if it brought me to Taylor again.” As long and she and Taylor look at each other like Jack and Rebecca do on This is Us, I’m sure Mandy will be just fine.

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34 Responses to “Mandy Moore to people sorry for her divorce: sorry would have been staying”

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  1. Missy says:

    Ryan Adams seems like a real dick

    • MCV says:

      Perhaps he’s mad the only relevant thing he has done in the last years is an album of covers of a Taylor Swift album while Mandy is getting a lot of deserved shine. Men are weak.

    • BengalCat😻 says:

      He’s a hipster tool, and I’ve dated many like him. Mandy seems nice.

    • manda says:

      Was going to post the same thing! Remember when he got super pissed off when someone made a Bryan Adams joke to him? No one is ever going to forget summer of ’69, dude! Get over yourself!

      My husband loves bladerunner but understands that it is a weird movie and not for everyone. I can’t imagine holding something like that against someone. That would be like if I refused to be friends with people who don’t like Love Actually! Unreasonable!

      • Lala11_7 says:

        I’ll be honest…I use music/movies as a criteria to see if I will even consider you “sponge-worthy”….so if you’re not down with the ORIGINAL cut of “Bladerunner” with the ORIGINAL soundtrack…no sponges for you!!!!

        Pretentious I know…yet…that criteria has NEVA failed me!

      • jay says:

        bladerunner and seinfeld references in one post? ill pray for you lmao.

    • holly hobby says:

      Yep. I never got their relationship but obviously he isn’t a catch.

    • DMM says:

      Why is he a dick? He didn’t say anything really. She’s the one who keeps talking about their marriage to the press. He should be allowed to respond back.

  2. Millenial says:

    I never understood those two together. Ryan tweeted even more and came off really badly – possibly drunk or something, idk. I don’t think Mandy dissed him at all, just said it wasn’t the right person.

    • K.T says:

      Yessss, I just went and had a look at that twitter whole mess and Ryan Adams seems in a really bad place 🙄. Yikes – seems like he’s a pretentious douchebag who is also going through some sort of mental health crisis/series of emotional breakdowns as he suggests online?! I find it hard to reconcile that he slept with a twenty year old indie singer on his fourtyith bday though – hope anyone like that gets better and finds help but…can’t help thinking run away young women!!

    • Boston Green Eyes says:

      I went to a Rolling Stones concert back in the early aughts and Ryan Adams was one of the openers. God, what a flaming, hot mess! As a sober person, I could see that he was off his gourd on something. Alcohol? Drugs? All of the above? It was embarrassing.

      When he got together with Mandy, I was like, whaaa? Because she sort of had this wholesome shtick going on. She was probably his empath/codependent to his narcissist/alcoholic.

      • Apalapa says:

        This! Ryan Adams ran in an NYC crowd that did a lot of heroin, coke, other drugs. Some of his friends were artists or musicians, some were trust fund babies, some were just street kids. And people from that time in his life died from overdoses.

        When that is the crowd you are running with, it probably doesn’t seem a huge deal to be drunk/high all the time but it has clearly been covering up a lot of pain for him and continues to do so.

        He doesn’t seem to get that it is ok to be in pain, but it is not ok to project all of that pain onto another.

      • Steff says:

        Yes. Albert from the Strokes said he was a bad influence on him and got him into hard stuff like herion. Then Ryan bitched on twitter about it.

        How Mandy and Ryan were even a couple that got married is a mystery. He’s always been greasy and drugged out.

  3. hoopjumper says:

    I get what she’s saying, but it’s a pet peeve of mine when people take “I’m sorry” super-literally. It’s a standard way of acknowledging the person you’re talking to it at some level disappointed or going through something. When someone replies, “It’s not your fault” or, “Don’t be sorry, it would have been worse if…” I feel like it’s weird.

    Am I overthinking? Yes. Can Mandy Moore be fine with the fact she’s divorced? Absolutely, more power to her. It’s just a thing I have with her particular way of phrasing it here.

    • Missy says:

      How was she supposed to phrase it? I thought what she said was pretty good

    • manda says:

      Yes! I say “I’m sorry” a lot to express sympathy for their plight. Maybe it’s better to say “I’m sorry that happened” or something like “that must have been hard”. But yeah, it’s kind of annoying when people respond that it’s not my fault, like, seriously, do you not get what I am saying?

      I guess what she was saying was, “no need to feel sympathy because it’s good that I got out.” And so I think her response is ok, because she doesn’t want you to feel sorry for any reason

      • Kristen says:

        I think the point she’s making is that she doesn’t need “sympathy for a plight” because she was glad to get out of the marriage. She’s saying her divorce was a good thing, so maybe a congratulations or good for you would be more in line with how she felt about the divorce.

      • hoopjumper says:

        @Kristen, I am sure that’s exactly what she meant, and more power to her. It’s just never going to work for someone to say “I’m getting a divorce”, and for the response to be “Congratulations!” Waaay to risky. That said,

        @Missy, you’re totally right, she did say it well, I just have a weird thing. I am happy she is happy, she’s a fun Insta-follow.

    • elle says:

      Yes, yes, yes. I’ve expressed sympathy this way my entire life (50 yrs). And in the last 10 yrs or so, I started hearing, “It’s not your fault” as a response and wondered if some fundamental lesson I don’t remember learning had fallen out of favor.

      It’s such an awkward response. I find myself wanting to say, “Yes, I know I didn’t kill your grandmother. But I’m still sorry for your loss.”

  4. Jess says:

    I scrolled through his twitter and he’s a hot ass mess, admits to taking pain killers and having to be reminded that he actually married her. So yeah I feel bad for her now, clearly he has serious issues. I remember thinking she could be a gold digger because she asked for so much money in the divorce, but now I see why. Her career stopped when she was with him, probably because he had to be taken care of, so I’m glad she got that money! Sounds like she deserved it, he’s a total douche.

    • holly hobby says:

      Yes she all but disappeared when she married him. I remember maybe she put out one record and her stint at Grey’s but that was it!

  5. TaniaOG says:

    His tweeting that he couldn’t believe that he had married her because he was high on pain pills is so disgusting and offensive. Way to prove you’re a douchebag dude.

    • smcollins says:

      If he’s like this on Twitter I can only imagine what he must have been like in private. He comes across as an emotionally and verbally abusive asshole. No doubt she is happy, as well as relieved, to be rid of him. Douchebag, indeed.

  6. Desolee says:

    No. Sorry would have been had I stayed in a very unhealthy situation.’ I didn’t. I found my way out. And when I did, things opened back up again

    Im going to steal this, thanks Mandy!

  7. a reader says:

    I don’t watch the show but I’ll say this. Mandy is aging like fine wine and Ryan is a douche canoe. She’s way better off without him.

  8. Veronica S. says:

    He’s such an embarrassment, especially given that he publicly guilted her into reconciling after he dumped her for not being “punk enough.” It’s a shame because he’s a talented musician, but it’s just wasted on him. There is no doubt in my mind he is the primary reason for that marriage failing.

  9. lucy2 says:

    I’m glad she got out of a bad situation. Adams seems like a pretentious, angry mess. She’s always struck me as a nice person, and I’m happy to see her doing so well now, even though I gave up on the show.

  10. Pandy says:

    OMG his twitter. Some people just can’t get enough attention I guess. Will always love the Bryan Adams story too, lollllll.

  11. Case says:

    I love Mandy. I don’t really see what the fuss is about in terms of her acting abilities (I thought she was great when I started watching her, but then realized she’s super one-note), but she seems like the sweetest person — beautiful inside and out.

    Happy that she got away from such a jerk (who clearly has addiction issues) and found someone better suited for her. She and her fiancé make a cute couple.

  12. Sam says:

    Something must have gone down in her relationship with her ex. Just this time last year, he was tweeting support of Mandy and This Is Us. Hmmmm….https://www.refinery29.com/2017/09/174149/mandy-moore-ryan-adams-still-friends

  13. Grey says:

    I read this as a strong woman who went through a less than ideal marriage and decided to stand up for herself. It makes me like her even more, honestly. I am currently in a situation where I don’t know if I picked the right person and am really struggling with it, and to hear someone talk about divorce sans stigma is really nice.

  14. TeamAwesome says:

    Full disclosure, I really love a lot of his music, but Ryan Adams is a dick, for sure. He also suffers from Meniere’s Disease, and (self) medicates with pot for that, so he is high a lot of the time. For a musician to deal with vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss when they are already an unbalanced type person, that’s a lot for a partner to live through. I never understood their pairing past the he needed to be rescued and she thought she was up for the task.

  15. NicoleinSavannah says:

    He is quite fond of blaming the disease. Chenoweth has it too and doesn’t act like turd. Man, everyone I knew that got married where they did has gotten a bitter divorce.