“Married With Children” star Ed O’Neill revealed he lashed out at actress Amanda Bearse after she left him off her wedding guest list.
O’Neill admitted a TV Guide cover created a rift between them that seeped into their relationship for years and created a permanent wedge between the fellow actors. He dished the details of their feud on a recent episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, “Dinner’s On Me,” according to Fox News Digital. O’Neill admitted he “messed up” and said he would handle the situation differently if he could turn back time.
The famous actor who played the role of Al Bundy on the show, openly discussed the infamous 1989 TV Guide cover shoot in which he posed alongside Christina Applegate, Katey Sagal and David Faustino, while David Garrison and Bearse were notably absent.
Bearse, who played supporting character Marcy D’Arcy, was upset about not being part of the cover and expressly asked O’Neill to go to bat for her and Garrison and have them included in the feature. O’Neill admitted that at the time, he refused to do so, which caused long-term tension between them.
He went on to say the wedge between them worsened when Bearse excluded him from her wedding guest list in 2010 when she married Carrie Schenken.
US actress Amanda Bearse arrives for the premiere of Universal Pictures’s “Bros” at Regal LA Live in Los Angeles on September 28, 2022. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
“Following that, Amanda was getting married. Now, in those days, this was a novelty. I mean, I shouldn’t call it a novelty — it was new. And didn’t invite me to the wedding. And my feelings were hurt,” O’Neill told Ferguson.
“So when I asked her about it, and she said, ‘Well, it was a tough call.’ And I kind of thought, ‘Are you confusing me with Al Bundy?'” he recalled.
“You know, I didn’t say that, but that’s what I felt like,” O’Neill said on the podcast.
He explained his feelings at the time.
“‘Why? What do you mean? What do you think, I’m a Neanderthal or something?’ So I was angry,” he said.
O’Neill admitted to regretting how he reacted to the wedding snub.
LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 22: Actor Ed O’Neilll attends the 14th Annual Global Green Pre Oscar Party at TAO Hollywood on February 22, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Global Green)
“If I had it to do over again, I would have said, ‘Amanda, all the best. It’s your call. It’s your wedding, You have who you want there,'” he said.
“But instead, I lashed out. I said something that I thought — it was a joke, but it was a mean joke, you know? I wish I had that to do over. That’s my biggest regret about that. I didn’t handle that well. I know that,” O’Neill told Ferguson.
O’Neill, who later found success with his role in “Modern Family,” updated his current relationships with his old cast members from “Married With Children.” (RELATED: Jennifer Lawrence Explains The Strange Reason She Told Robert De Niro To Leave Her Wedding Rehearsal)
“They were very unusual and interesting people, so I missed that. I missed the cast. I’m still in touch with Christina and David and Katey and not so much Amanda or David Garrison because they’re not around,” he said.