Dennis Quaid Explains Why He Doesn't Regret Marriage to Meg Ryan

Dennis Quaid has opened up about his decade-long marriage to "America's Sweetheart" Meg Ryan. But despite the former Hollywood power couple's tumultuous divorce, the 70-year-old says he has no regrets about their union.

While appearing on the latest episode of the Max talk show Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? on Friday, Sept. 6 to promote his new biographical drama Reagan, Quaid was asked whether the high-profile attention surrounding his relationship with Ryan put strain and pressure on their marriage. As Wallace also noted, at the time of their separation, Ryan was the more famous of the two.

"When I met Meg I was here as far as career thing and she was here and then it just went [makes whooshing sound] like that,” Quaid said, gesturing with his hands to show how her popularity surged. "I tried to be a big person and tell myself that didn’t bother me, but people are human. And she was ascending as I went into rehab."

“Meg is really such a great, sweet person and really talented and deserved all her success," he continued. "But I've found myself being human. And in fact, that really helped me in my research for Ronald Reagan, he was married to [first wife] Jane Wyman, who, as his career was heading down, she won an Academy Award. And so I understand what that feels like, and that's just part of being human."

"But I don’t regret anything about my marriage to Meg," Quaid added. "And we got Jack Quaid out of it, who is really going on to maybe, I think, eclipse both of us."

Quaid and Ryan were married from 1991 and separated in 2000 before finalizing their divorce in 2001. At the time of their split, Ryan set the gossip mill churning when she became linked to actor Russell Crowe while filming their 2000 action thriller Proof of Life. However, per Page Six, she told Oprah Winfrey in 2006 that her involvement with Crowe had nothing to do with the end of her "very unhealthy marriage."

"I was very sad that it came apart in the way it seemed to have. It was never about another man. It was just about what my and Dennis’ relationship couldn’t sustain," she said at the time. "I think once the tabloids get a hold of three celebrity names you’re just really in trouble … I didn’t leave my marriage for Russell Crowe. I left my marriage."

Years later, in a 2008 interview with InStyle, Ryan claimed that she was not the only one unfaithful during the couple's marriage.

"It was a great story. But what wasn’t in the story was the reality of my marriage for nine years," she claimed. "Dennis was not faithful to me for a long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that once I was divorced."

It's unclear whether Ryan has the same precious few regrets about the marriage as her ex does, but it seems safe to say it's all water under the bridge now.