For the first time, Glen Powell has addressed his ex-girlfriend’s irate claims about their public breakup, which coincided with romance rumors involving his Anyone But You co-star Sydney Sweeney.
Powell, 36, and model Gigi Paris, 32, dated for three years before splitting in early 2023, amid mounting speculation that he and Sweeney, 27, had become entangled in an on-set relationship.
The two actors later admitted to having intentionally leaned into the rumors and their “chemistry” to help make their romcom a success.
Now Powell is breaking his silence on Paris’s recent remarks that she felt like she was “made a fool.”
“I will always have nothing but love for her and respect for her,” he said in a new interview with GQ.
“Everybody’s always going to have their own narrative on things and all that. And she’s welcome to it,” the Hit Man star added diplomatically. “Relationships are really hard. And when two people break up, they each go to their own brunch and they will each tell their own narrative.”
During Paris’s appearance on Emma Klipstein’s Too Much podcast in June, she aired her grievances with the way she felt their breakup was handled.
“It was just, this is what I have to do for my job. I had two options. I could either pretend like I was going along with everything and have everyone wonder, like, ‘Are they hooking up? Are they not hooking up? Is she okay with this? What the f***?’ Or stand up for myself and say, ‘No, I’m actually not okay with this, and I’m walking away.’ So that’s what I decided to do … I was shattered,” she recalled.
“I just wanted respect, especially if it’s gonna be public,” she added. “Like, don’t make an ass out of me. Like, just don’t make a fool out of someone you’ve been with for over three years talking about forever with. Just have some decency, you know? And at the end of the day, it was like, well, work comes first. And if that’s the case, power to you, that’s your priority. I gotta walk away. What sucked was how it was handled. I felt like I was just fed to the dogs.”
Weeks before Paris’s podcast interview dropped, Sweeney confirmed she was single after breaking off her engagement to movie producer Jonathan Davino.
Meanwhile, in April, the Euphoria star was spotted at Powell’s sisters’ wedding. Her attendance only ignited further speculation. However, Powell’s mother insisted at the time that the two are “definitely not together” and Sweeney was only there as a friend.
Powell told GQ that he relies on his Top Gun co-star Tom Cruise’s advice to help him get through the more difficult periods of stardom.
“He basically said, ‘Hey, it’s going to get really, really loud. It’s your job to just turn the volume down. Just remember you have your hand on that switch. You have your hand on the ability to turn up that noise or turn it down.’ And really just turning down the noise and trusting your own gut has been a real godsend for me.”
