Jerry O’Connell is currently filming a movie in South Africa called Summer’s Last Resort with Sophia Bush. While on location, they did a two-part episode of Sophia’s podcast, Work in Progress. While talking about parenting his 17-year-old twin daughters, Charlie Tamara Tulip and Dolly Rebecca Rose, Jerry mentioned that they’d recently been caught getting drunk. He realized that there would be some things that he couldn’t stop his teenagers from experimenting with, but he made sure to warn them not to try nicotine. Jerry also revealed that after decades of being a smoker, he finally cut out cigarettes over a decade ago after his wife, Rebecca Romijn, refused to have intimate relations with him until he quit.
“You know, I struggled with nicotine for decades, struggled with it, had to get hypnotized,” he said, adding: “Haven’t had a ciggy in, like, 14 years.”
He added that the one who pushed him to quit was his wife, Rebecca Romijn, 14 years ago.
“My wife said she would not touch me if I smoked, and that lasted about two months,” he said. “And by the way — no contact. My wife said, I’m not touching you anymore until you quit smoking. And I thought it was a joke. Then after, like, two weeks, there was no physical contact. After about three and a half weeks, I was like, I gotta do something.”
While he tried to quit on his own, O’Connell said he couldn’t do it — until he brought in an expert.
“I knew a girl who had quit smoking and I called her up and I said, ‘How did you do it?’ And she said, ‘I’m gonna give you the number of this lady [a hypnotist].’ And I went to see her and I had to bring a photo of my children and my wife.,” he said. “And I sat down on her… recliner, and she put her headphones on me and there was, like, spa music. And she was like, ‘Count to nine, eight…’ and I fell asleep.”
He continued: “I woke up, and I was like, that was baloney. What a joke. I can’t believe I just gave some old lady $800. What a waste of money.”
“I walked to my car. I got in it. I had a pack [cigarettes], put the ciggy in my mouth, brought the lighter up… I couldn’t light it… I swear to you. I swear to you. I’ve never been hypnotized for anything else,” he added.
One funny side note – People’s headline says that Rebecca “threatened” not to sleep with him until he quit smoking and Jerry hilariously corrected them over Twitter, saying, ”There was no threat. [She] stopped.” They really tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but Jerry was like, “Nope, no touchy really meant no touchy!” Good for Rebecca for standing her ground and not caving! Nicotine is so addictive. My Millennial husband works with a lot of Gen Zers and he cannot believe how many of them are addicted to vaping. $800 cash sounds like a lot of money but Jerry has saved much more than that over the years.
As for the hypnosis thing, an important detail that Jerry mentions is that he really wanted to light that cigarette, but he just physically could not go through with it. When I was younger, I want to say circa 1997-1999, I knew two adults who tried hypnosis to quit smoking. If I remember correctly, it worked for one of them but not the other. I know that most people are skeptical that this kind of thing works. I’m on the fence. Studies have shown that there is something to it, but there’s not enough research beyond anecdotal. I think to a point, *some* things can be mind-over-matter, and apparently for Jerry, Rebecca withholding sex for a lengthy period of time was a pretty good motivator.
Correction @people There was no threat. @RebeccaRomijn stopped. After a LONG while, I realized I was never going to win. Been SMOBER 13-years! YOU CAN DO IT!🚭🚭🚭 Thanks Babe! https://t.co/uYtUPUuzDn
— Jerry O'Connell (@MrJerryOC) February 18, 2026
Note by CB: I looked through our photo agencies for pictures of Jerry O’Connell smoking and all I found was a close up of his hand with a cigarette from 2012 from a movie I’d never heard of called The Lookalike. Photos credit: Alter Photos/PacificCoastNews/Avalon, Joe Sutter/PacificCoastNews/Avalon, Getty Images
Good for Rebecca. I grew up in a smoked-infested home. My father would burn up 3-4 packs of cigarettes a day. I remember one time I found cigarettes burning in three different rooms. I hated smoking so much, I would not even date anyone that smoked. My poor mom ended up with emphysema from second-hand smoke. She never smoked in her life.
Ha! Love it. They seem like a very solid couple/family unit.
Good for her!! It smells and isn’t good for you and if you smoke enough of them a day your fingers can yellow as well as your teeth. My father was a heavy smoker till he got emphysema and then he quit after many decades.
Congratulations to Rebecca! She saved her whole family from horrible secondhand smoke, and Jerry from possible health problems down the road. My dad was a two packs a day smoker; he was never able to kick the habit. I know it shortened his life as both of my uncles (non-smokers) lived to their 80s and 90s when my dad passed at 68. I hate smoking so much and refuse to be around it.
Poor Jerry probably picked up the habit from his famous role in Stand by Me. I can still remember his line “nothing like a smoke after a meal”, when the boys are all sitting around the campfire.
I’m also on the fence about hypnotism, but I’m glad it helped Jerry. It’s a tough habit to quit.
The expression “It’s like kissing an ashtray” revolted me soooo much, plus discovering I was pregnant, made me stop.
That was 35 years ago.