Justin Hartley Says 'This Is Us' Superfan Harassed Him
When Milo Ventimiglia's character, Jack Pearson, died on This Is Us, the actor told Jimmy Kimmel that fans approached him asking for a hug, so they could cope with his heartbreaking death scene. But his costar, Justin Hartley, said he's had a fan go way beyond just wanting a hug - and it crossed the line into sexual harassment.
"I’m not afraid to say this, because I think she should be ashamed of herself," Hartley told GoodHousekeeping.com at a Morningstar Farms event in New York.
Hartley, who plays Kevin Pearson on the hit NBC show, recalled a moment when an overly aggressive fan approached him at a restaurant in Chicago. He was hanging out with a group of close friends when the fan interrupted them. Hartley couldn't recall exactly what the woman looked like, but says she was "old enough to be drinking a lot."
"This woman – who I don’t know, a stranger to me – recognized me and started screaming, going crazy," he said. "She ran over and started kissing me." He claims he immediately backed away, and told the unnamed woman to do the same. He then asked her to take yet another step back to make it clear his personal space had just been violated.
"I said, ‘You do not walk up to people that you do not know and put your mouth on their face. If I did that to you, I would be in prison. Please do not do that. And not that I’m trying to teach you life lessons, but I feel like this is a really good one for you. Don’t do that to anybody ever again," Hartley says.
After he dismissed the woman's advances, Hartley says she seemed embarrassed and they decided to smooth things over. "We had a little breaking of bread, if you will, and everything calmed down," he says.
Hartley says he continued his meal as usual with his friends, but that wasn't the end of his ordeal. The woman approached him again, and this time she wanted a photo with him.
"I said, ‘I’m good,'" he told us. "I’m usually really good with photos, but I’m, like, ‘I’m not taking photos with you after you sexually harassed me. I’m good without a photo.’"
The woman, according to Hartley, really wanted a photo and did not take him saying "no" well at all. "As she was leaving, she was, like, ‘Justin Hartley is a jerk,’ but not really jerk – something more foul," he says. "I was, like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’"
You Might Also Like
