I completely forgot about Kaley Cuoco’s tumultuous romantic history. I think of her as an upbeat blonde who loves horses and dogs. And who made bank from a show I found annoying and is now starring in a show I really like. And all that is accurate, but she also had a messy personal life. There was that weird thing with Henry Cavill, then she very quickly married former tennis pro Ryan Sweeting and divorced him, then she dated around a bit, then slightly less quickly married equestrian Karl Cook and divorced him too. (Looking up the timeline, I learned she was engaged to another guy in 2012, but they broke it off).
Now, two marriages later, Kaley told Glamour in no uncertain terms that she will never get married again. She still wants love and a partnership in the future, but she says marriage won’t be a part of that.
Kaley Cuoco knows one thing for sure: A third marriage is not in the cards.
“I will never get married again,” the actor tells Glamour in our April cover story. And just in case you thing she’s being a tad hyperbolic, Cuoco doubles down: “Absolutely not. You can literally put that on the cover.”
The Flight Attendant star has been married twice. Her first marriage to tennis player Ryan Sweeting lasted three years, from 2013 to 2016. The 36-year-old announced the end of her second marriage to professional equestrian Karl Cook in September of last year, three years after they wed at a horse stable in San Diego.
But don’t mistake her opposition to marriage for an opposition to love.
“I would love to have a long-lasting relationship or a partnership,” she tells us. “I believe in love because I’ve had incredible relationships. I know that they’re out there. I like being someone’s partner and having that companionship.”
For the moment, Cuoco remains happily single, focusing on her own well-being after a year of nonstop stress due to The Flight Attendant’s grueling schedule as well as her divorce.
“I’d have these emotional scenes and then I’d go home and cry over my personal life,” says Cuoco. “I developed a rash that went from my lower stomach down my leg. It lasted for seven months. I discovered through therapy and through my doctors that it was completely emotional. That’s how the stress was [showing up] physically.”
The former Big Bang actor adds that she’s currently in therapy, where she’s learning to forgive herself for “mistakes” she’s made in previous relationships, and to stop viewing life through a binary lens—specifically when it comes to balancing her career and her relationships. “I’m so black-and-white, and trying to find the gray is just very hard for me,” she says. “I want to have a relationship that I give my time to and that the person feels [like they’re] really part of my life. I get so distracted with work and I want to have that in the future.”
She continues, “I know now what I wasn’t doing [in previous relationships]. I want to change that. I really know where I’ve fucked up, and I don’t want to do that again.”
What Kaley said about crying and the stress rash shows that divorce was harder on her than she initially indicated, which makes sense and I feel for her. She’s better off without that guy anyway, he was tacky and looked like the villain in a WWII movie. So it’s a good move for her to be single for now and focus on herself and work. The Flight Attendant is a bit of a reinvention for her — she got it made and she’s an executive producer — so her career is hot right now. She has so much money from Big Bang Theory, but this seems to be a new era for her.
As for what Kaley says about not getting married again… I mean, she did say something similar about marriage being ruined after her first divorce, but she was already engaged when she said that. This time she told them to put it on the cover to hold her accountable! It seems like she’s soured on the institution of marriage, but still wants a relationship. Getting married and divorced gets expensive even with solid pre-nups, and her past marriages were such whirlwinds and seemed dysfunctional. The tennis guy moved in after their first date, they were engaged within three months, and married a few months after that. Their marriage was plagued with stories about bad fights and his underemployment. Then she and her second husband bonded over their shared love of animals, but they didn’t live together for nearly the first two years of their three-year marriage. From what Kaley says to Glamour, it sounds like she’s being really thoughtful about her past and not repeating mistakes and she’s being very intentional about what she wants going forward.
-
- ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Finale Party at The Langham Huntington Hotel Featuring: Kaley Cuoco, Karl Cook Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 01 May 2019 Credit: Sheri Determan/WENN.com
Photos credit: WENN and via Instagram
Thoughts on marriage aside, I’ve very underwhelmed by how she’s been styled for this. Does someone at Glamour not like her?
Props to her for getting some therapy though, it’s so important to understand how we made past choices and be able to move forward from some unhelpful habits/thinking. I’ve been considering it for years but have fears along the lines of the joke about taking out the load bearing neurosis and the whole lot coming crashing down.
She reminds me so much of Jennifer Aniston in her acting, and it seems in her personal life and career as well. I never saw one episode of BBT; the first thing I saw her in was The Flight Attendant. I could see Jennifer Aniston in every scene. That’s not a bad thing. I am looking forward to the next season.
I never watched TBBT (it looked annoying) but I just started watched the Flight Attendant and I’m shocked at how good she is! Good for her for trying to learn from her past. Therapy is super important after divorce (been there) and hopefully she’ll find what she is looking for with or without a man.
As a side note, am I the only one who finds Michael Huisman absolutely gorgeous??
I will say this, it seems like she’s growing as a person. I never liked her much until I saw the Flight Attendant. They say people in Hollywood stay ‘mentally’ the age they were when they become famous. Although, that’s definitely not true for every person in Hollywood… I feel like she’s one that is not on that list, so good for her:).
Cannot wait for the Flight Attendant! Less than a week away!
She seems in love with the idea of love but after the honeymoon period things go sideways for her. Glad she is in therapy you can learn to love yourself and unravel years of dysfunction. To work towards a healthy balanced relationship.
From your mouth, Applecart, to JLo’ s ear.
That’s exactly who I was thinking of.
It’s wonderful that she’s getting the help that she needs, honestly we all need it. I don’t think that she needs to declare that marriage again is a no for her. She should just live with herself for awhile and get to know her self. We never know what is to come.
Good for her. I’ve had stress rashes, though they were more contained and never lasted that long. It’s so interesting how your body manifests your emotions. I’m glad she is getting therapy.
I am also glad to hear that other people found TBBT annoying. I never understood that show’s massive popularity. It had funny moments and a talented cast but it seemed like one long running joke about “science types are dysfunctional dorks, amiright?”
I never watched much of TBBT but every little bit I saw made me cringe. I just couldn’t stand it, but the Flight Attendant really lets Kaley shine.
@annel… best way I’ve heard it described:
BBT is to nerds what Will & Grace was to gays.
{make it palatable to minivan majority with some stereotypes & witty repartee}
Her second husband, Karl, came from a wealthy family so I wonder how much her not becoming a full time equestrian competitor, her striving for goals like getting The Flight Attendant made destroyed their relationship. Horsey circles had whisper campaigns about his cheating which I believe but I also believe Kaley isn’t a person that can be a trust fund wife. She was a working child actor to adult actor on sitcoms so her changing gears & producing which has been amazing, I love The Flight Attendant, might have pushed up against Karl’s full time trust fund equestrian life.
I think it’s a reasonable reaction to not want to marry again after having gone through two divorces so young.
Some people are just not cut out for marriage — she admits she’s a “black & white” kind of thinker and she strikes me as a fairly A-type (think Reese Witherspoon) personality. I’ve never married but have had a couple of long-termish live-in relationships, both of which failed after numerous problems including both guys having affairs behind my back. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from those early failures, it’s learning to turn off those “I’m not worthy unless I’m married with kids” feelings and throw off that self-inflicted pressure of thinking there must be something wrong with me. We’re all different emotional shapes and sizes and just because you’re not living a cookie-cutter life with a spouse and 2 kids doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us. After a 10 year hiatus from men, I’m now in a 7 year long live-in relationship with a wonderful guy but neither of wants to marry, it’s just fine as it is. Kaley’s doing the right thing, taking time off from trying to find the perfect love/marriage and learning to just love herself.
She wants to be not as hard on herself moving forward but I feel like boxing yourself into a corner with a claim like I’ll never get married again seems like an overreaction to her divorces and being mean to herself right? Like she doesn’t trust herself so her punishment is you’re never get to marry again not learning changing and trusting that