Sally Field’s worst on-screen kiss came with an unexpectedly personal twist. Asked by a fan to name the culprit, the Hollywood legend hesitated before revealing someone tied to one of her most famous real-life romances. What began as a playful television question opened the door to an uncomfortable memory, one that resurfaced the awkward reality behind a famous Hollywood pairing whose glamorous public image concealed a far messier truth behind the scenes…a memory that would eventually come back into focus during a candid live television interview, long after the romance itself had ended.
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Sally Field during Tapeing the “The Bill Boggs Show” – November 1, 1977 in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
The Watch What Happens Live Confession
During a December 2022 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Field identified Burt Reynolds as her least favorite on-screen kissing partner. “Oh boy. Shall I really name names here?” she asked before answering the fan’s question.
Her explanation was decidedly unromantic. She cited too much “drooling” as the reason the kiss stuck with her for all the wrong reasons. Cohen seemed surprised, noting that the pair had also dated in real life, not just acted opposite one another.
Behind the Smokey and the Bandit Romance
Field and Reynolds met while filming Smokey and the Bandit in 1977. The on-set connection sparked a relationship that lasted roughly five years, one that became part of their public legacy as a Hollywood couple.
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Their shared on-screen chemistry helped cement that image in fans’ minds for decades afterward. But according to Field, what audiences saw together on film did not reflect the full truth of what passed between them off camera.
Field’s Later Reflections on Reynolds
In a March 2022 interview with Variety, Field offered a more sobering account. She said she and Reynolds had not spoken during the final 30 years of his life, a long silence following their breakup.
She noted that Reynolds reportedly expressed regret about their split before his death. Field, however, rejected his idealized version of their shared past.
Sally Field reflects on her past in new memoir, ‘In Pieces’
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Her account draws a clear line between on-screen magic and off-screen reality. A memorable Hollywood love story, as she framed it, is not necessarily proof of a happy or healthy personal one.