Sylvester Stallone has revealed the one thing he wishes he had done differently in his three-decade relationship with his wife Jennifer Flavin.
The 80-year-old actor admitted that he should have married Flavin much sooner, rather than procrastinating. Stallone made the comments while speaking with Tracy Smith of CBS at 92NY in New York on Monday.
"I wish I'd married my wife about eight years earlier," Stallone said, more than 29 years after he and Flavin tied the knot.
He told the audience that he had been slow to commit. "I was such an idiot, procrastinating. Because you know, I'm still actually learning about relationships that bad. So I regret that. And I'm sorry."
Stallone first met Flavin, now 58, in 1988. The couple dated for six years before briefly breaking up in 1994, when Stallone admitted to having an affair with the model Janice Dickinson.
A handwritten letter
The actor previously called himself a coward for breaking up with Flavin using a six-page handwritten letter sent via FedEx.
Stallone believed at the time that Dickinson had become pregnant with his daughter. However, after DNA tests proved that he was not the father, he eventually returned to Flavin.
The couple reunited and have been married since May 1997.
In his interview with Smith on Monday, the CBS journalist asked Stallone if the lack of love he felt as a child could have influenced him to procrastinate when it came to his relationship with Flavin.
"There is that," the actor replied. "There is that."
According to an account from People magazine, he further reflected on his childhood trauma. "So a lot of people that have these issues, it's not your fault. You know, it's just the way you evolve it."
Learning to love
Stallone elaborated on the lasting impact of early experiences. "And I have said it before, I just look at a child like an infant, like a pile of wet clay," he said.
"And if you drop it two times, you put permanent dents. They don't come out. So you have to go through life with these problems and they don't go away."
Elsewhere in the live interview, the screenwriter and Rocky star told the crowd that being with Flavin has shown him how to love.
"It's a habit, you know, learning to love is a really wonderful habit," he shared. "And with my wife, Jennifer, it's finally come to fruition. It took about 60 years, but we got there."
Stallone and Flavin share three daughters: Sophia, 30, Sistine, 28, and Scarlet, 24.
Previous marriages
Stallone has been married three times. He shares a 47-year-old son, Seargeoh, with his first wife Sasha Czack. They also had a son named Sage, who died at age 36 in 2012. Stallone and Czack were married from 1974 to 1985.
He was later married to the actress Brigitte Nielsen from 1985 to 1987.
Stallone and Flavin almost divorced in 2022, but the couple reconciled one month later.
To mark their anniversary this past May, the actor shared a photograph of them on Instagram. He wrote: "Happy anniversary, you give my life meaning!"
Flavin replied in the comments: "I love you, you are my everything!"
