Remember when Kulia/Jiefer was a thing? Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re traveling back to the 90s to relive this emotional rollercoaster.
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00:00 "Didn't I already sign out of this?"
00:01 "Look, I've already got Stechel and Hurley,
00:04 two of the top GPAs in the school."
00:06 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're traveling back to the 90s
00:10 to relive the emotional rollercoaster that was...
00:13 Coolia? Jeefer?
00:15 Not every couple name rolls off the tongue.
00:17 From Liz and Dick to Brad and Angie,
00:19 some celebrity couples stick with us long after they break up.
00:23 Others are confined to a specific decade,
00:25 or in the case of Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland,
00:28 a couple of years.
00:29 "Fame is inevitable."
00:30 "That's the wrong reason."
00:32 "It's the right idea."
00:33 People often forget that for a hot second in the early 90s,
00:36 Roberts and Sutherland weren't just a celebrity couple,
00:39 they were THE celebrity couple.
00:42 Unlike Tom and Nicole or Bruce and Demi, though,
00:45 this pair wouldn't even make it down the aisle.
00:47 "But then this other thing kind of took over."
00:50 Although their time together was fleeting,
00:52 it's surprising that such a significant pop culture milestone
00:55 could fade into relative obscurity.
00:57 We guess you just had to be there, but allow us to set the stage.
01:01 "With me, you'll go through with this."
01:03 Donald's son and Eric's sister.
01:07 The year was 1989.
01:09 One was the son of actor Donald Sutherland,
01:12 the other, the sister of actor Eric Roberts.
01:15 Kiefer and Julia were both coming into their own as major stars
01:18 when they met while shooting Flatliners in late 1989.
01:21 "Nelson. Nelson, can you hear us?"
01:23 "I'll come back."
01:26 Roberts arrived on set around the same time she finished
01:29 another movie you might have heard of, Pretty Woman.
01:32 At the time, Sutherland was married to Camelia Kath,
01:35 the widow of guitarist Terry Kath.
01:37 Roberts had been engaged to her Steel Magnolias co-star Dylan McDermott.
01:41 "Say you're gonna marry me. I hate suspense."
01:45 "Okay. Okay. You meet me two o'clock. Presbyterian Church."
01:53 Yet it wasn't long until Roberts and Sutherland were an item.
01:56 In January 1990, the same month Flatliners wrapped,
02:00 Roberts won a Golden Globe for Steel Magnolias.
02:03 She concluded her speech by thanking her, quote,
02:06 "blue-eyed, green-eyed best friend," undoubtedly Sutherland.
02:09 "This is for him, too. Thanks."
02:11 Less than a month after Roberts' Globe win,
02:14 news broke that Sutherland and Kath had filed for divorce,
02:17 agreeing to share custody of their daughters,
02:19 one from Kath's previous relationship.
02:21 While Roberts' Globe win and Oscar nomination for Steel Magnolias
02:25 propelled her to A-lister status,
02:27 she was about to become America's sweetheart.
02:29 "I would've stayed for 2,000. I would've paid 4."
02:34 In March 1990, Pretty Woman debuted,
02:37 signifying Roberts' coronation as movie star royalty.
02:41 Flatliners released that August,
02:43 the same month Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement.
02:46 "What if he didn't make it back? Did you miss him, Rachel?"
02:53 In January 1991, Roberts found herself accepting another Globe for Pretty Woman.
02:58 Roberts embraced Sutherland before making her way to the stage.
03:02 This time, she mentioned her fiancé by name in her speech.
03:05 "Most of all, I would like to thank Kiefer,
03:08 who supports me through everything and brings so much happiness to my life."
03:13 Speaking with Barbara Walters in February,
03:15 Roberts said that she'd love Sutherland, quote, "forever."
03:18 "This is the one that's going to be for the rest of your life,
03:22 if you could look at that."
03:23 "Yeah, forever love. I believe in that."
03:26 Runaway Bride Origins
03:28 The wedding was set for June 14, 1991.
03:32 20th Century Fox's Soundstage 14 would provide the venue,
03:35 making this a true Hollywood affair with 150 guests.
03:39 "I had the strangest dream."
03:41 Roberts' four bridesmaids picked up their $425 Manolo Blahnik shoes
03:46 to go with matching seafoam green outfits.
03:48 Yet Roberts' custom-made $8,000 dress went unclaimed.
03:52 Three days before the ceremony,
03:54 Roberts and Sutherland reportedly came to a, quote,
03:57 "mutual decision" to postpone their nuptials.
04:00 Not long after, the whole thing was called off.
04:02 Although this came as a shock to many,
04:04 there had been signs of trouble in paradise.
04:07 Earlier that year, Sutherland moved out of Roberts' home,
04:10 taking up residence at the St. Francis Hotel.
04:12 Sutherland claimed he was researching a role,
04:15 although the media speculated otherwise.
04:17 "Since when did truth and knowledge become a horror?"
04:20 Across the street was Sutherland's favorite pool hall,
04:23 where he allegedly started seeing a go-go dancer named Amanda Rice,
04:26 aka Raven.
04:28 "What was that all about?"
04:29 "I just said something in really bad taste."
04:31 Sutherland moved back in with Roberts after three weeks,
04:34 but the plot thickened when Rice started speaking to the tabloids.
04:38 Rice claimed that Sutherland called Roberts, quote,
04:40 "an ice princess."
04:41 "Gonna hit the road."
04:42 As Sutherland denied having a romantic relationship with Rice,
04:46 Roberts checked into a hospital for "the flu,"
04:49 or so her rep said.
04:51 The wedding was seemingly still on,
04:53 although another red flag was raised
04:55 when Sutherland's bachelor party was suddenly canceled.
04:58 A cake shaped like a 15-pound turkey had been prepared for the event.
05:01 The Dominick's restaurant staff would eat the turkey cake,
05:04 while the four-tier wedding cake that had been ordered was never finished.
05:07 "I can just picture you there, sitting alone at your table in your lavender gown."
05:11 "Did I tell you my gown was lavender?"
05:13 "Hair swept up. Haven't touched your cake."
05:15 Instead of marrying Roberts on June 14, 1991,
05:18 Sutherland moved out of her Hollywood Hills house.
05:21 Meanwhile, Roberts was eating a turkey burger at Nowhere Cafe with Jason Patrick,
05:25 Sutherland's friend and Lost Boys co-star.
05:28 "Too late. My blood is in your veins."
05:31 Patrick had received an invitation to the wedding,
05:33 which Sutherland rescinded.
05:35 Not long after, Roberts and Patrick flew from London to Dublin,
05:38 where they stayed at the Shelburne Hotel.
05:40 While they got separate rooms,
05:42 Roberts noticeably wasn't wearing her engagement ring.
05:45 "Guard this with your life."
05:46 "What is it?"
05:47 "The ring."
05:48 "Why are you giving it to me?"
05:51 All the while, Sutherland headed to his 300-acre Whitefish, Montana ranch,
05:55 where he was supposed to honeymoon with Roberts.
05:57 By the end of the year, Roberts and Sutherland were officially over.
06:01 The two were set to star in a Western called Renegades,
06:04 but that project died with their relationship.
06:06 "Trouble? You think I look like trouble? I'm a poet.
06:09 Carrying flowers of all things."
06:11 Although the media made it sound like the wedding was cancelled
06:14 only a few days in advance, Roberts claimed that it wasn't so abrupt.
06:17 "Maggie!"
06:18 "Go, go, go, go."
06:20 "Maggie!"
06:24 Roberts also said that she planned to end the engagement,
06:28 but Sutherland beat her to it over the phone.
06:30 As for why things didn't work out, this is where the rumor mill comes in.
06:34 "Rachel, everything matters. Everything we do matters."
06:38 Some believe it was due to Sutherland's relationship with Rice,
06:41 whom he supposedly did date for a brief period.
06:44 Others say it was because Roberts' career was skyrocketing to the point
06:47 that Sutherland couldn't keep up.
06:49 Sutherland reflected years later, quote,
06:51 "She was arguably the most famous woman in the world,
06:54 and this wedding that was supposed to be something between the two of us
07:01 became something so big."
07:02 Whatever the reason, the gossip died down until Roberts starred in Runaway Bride.
07:07 The 1999 rom-com reunited Roberts with Pretty Woman director Gary Marshall
07:11 and co-star Richard Gere.
07:13 "And Gills, of course."
07:15 "Gillian."
07:17 "And George. He proposed at a butterfly farm in St. Thomas.
07:23 The ring was inside a cocoon."
07:26 Roberts played a woman who has run out on multiple grooms,
07:29 leading the press to speculate if the film was semi-autobiographical.
07:33 In reality, the project had been in the works for nearly a decade,
07:37 with Roberts first reading the script years before signing on.
07:40 Hector Elizondo said that Sutherland never came up on set, but, quote,
07:44 "I'm sure there were some jokes flying around."
07:47 Roberts denied that she was playing herself, saying, quote,
07:50 "To draw parallels to something I think people don't even pursue the truth about,
07:54 and at this point is such ancient history, is silly."
07:57 "I wanted to talk to you about why I run, sometimes ride, away from things."
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08:25 Life isn't a rom-com.
08:27 Indeed, Sutherland and Roberts' relationship felt like ancient history by the turn of the century,
08:32 with both moving on.
08:33 "I'm smart, I'm hardworking, and I'll do anything,
08:36 and I'm not leaving here without a job."
08:38 Professionally, the two had never been doing better.
08:40 Roberts kicked off 2001 by winning an Oscar for Erin Brockovich,
08:44 while Sutherland landed his career-defining role as Jack Bauer on 24.
08:49 "It's Wall. She's coming into the office. He wants everybody in as soon as possible.
08:52 It's only a briefing. I should be back within an hour."
08:55 Behind the scenes, Roberts married country singer Lyle Lovett in 1993.
09:00 Following a divorce in 1995, she dated actor Benjamin Bratt before
09:04 marrying cinematographer Daniel Moder in 2002. They're still together with three children.
09:09 "That's the best stuff, to come home at the end of the day triumphantly to them."
09:15 Sutherland married Elizabeth Kelly Wynn in 1996,
09:18 although they separated three years later with a divorce finalized in 2008.
09:23 He briefly dated Bo Derek before entering a long-term relationship
09:26 with model/actress Cindy Vela. The couple has been engaged since 2017.
09:31 Sutherland and Patrick stopped talking for nearly 10 years following The Wedding That Never Was.
09:36 They reconciled in the 2000s, co-starring in a 2011 production of That Championship Season,
09:41 which Patrick's father Jason Miller wrote.
09:44 "We hadn't seen each other for over 20 years, and then we contacted each other."
09:49 "I don't know if it was that long, but yeah."
09:50 "Sure it was, man."
09:52 At the time of their split, Roberts said, quote,
09:54 "I feel like Kiefer, for whatever reasons, tried to make it seem like he was the victim of the
09:58 situation. I quite honestly believe that Kiefer knows that it's the best thing for himself and
10:03 for me that it didn't happen." Sutherland seems to share the same mindset now,
10:08 saying in 2016 that Roberts was brave for walking away.
10:11 "And I think it took a lot of courage, in amongst all of that other stuff,
10:17 to be able to say I can't do this."
10:19 Roberts and Sutherland are still big names over 30 years later.
10:23 Even if their relationship flatlined, their careers didn't.
10:26 "I really am sorry."
10:27 "Nelson, please, please wait."
10:29 Is there another celebrity couple retrospective you'd like to see from us?
10:33 Make suggestions in the comments.
10:35 "Ready?"
10:36 "I'm listening."
10:37 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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10:50 [MUSIC]