– Jerry O’Connell appeared on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast on July 20
– He admitted to being a “terrible boyfriend” to Giuliana Rancic between 2003 and 2004
– He discussed breaking up with her over an intercom at his condominium when she arrived unexpectedly
– He revealed there was another woman in his home at the time
– Rancic responded on July 23 with an Instagram video from a boat on vacation
– She said his memory was “fuzzy” about the incident
– She invited him on her podcast with husband Bill Rancic
– Her 2015 memoir “Going Off Script” detailed the breakup and alleged cheating with Geri Halliwell
Giuliana Rancic fired back at her ex Jerry O’Connell on Thursday, July 23, after the actor spent over two decades staying quiet about their breakup before airing it publicly on Kelly Ripa’s podcast
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O’Connell, 52, confessed to being a “terrible boyfriend” to Rancic, 51, between 2003 and 2004
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O’Connell discussed their relationship on Monday, July 20, during an episode of Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast
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“I broke up with her through an intercom because Giuliana Rancic came to my condominium,” O’Connell said. “I was not expecting Giuliana Rancic to come to said condominium.”
O’Connell admitted that another woman was inside his home at the time, as he had dated Geri Halliwell after his split from Rancic
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O’Connell told Ripa during the podcast: “Let me take this moment to apologize to Giuliana Rancic for being a terrible boyfriend.”
“I was just a bad boyfriend. I was just not a great boyfriend,” he continued
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O’Connell said he had told Rancic at the intercom: “I did not know you were coming. You can’t come here unannounced.”
When asked about his exact wording during the 2004 split, O’Connell confessed he doesn’t “recall [his] exact wording”
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“It doesn’t sound like something I would say, but again, if I was writing a memoir, it made for a good quote,” he told Ripa
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He “applaud[ed]” Rancic for “using colorful dialogue and everything” in her book
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Rancic responded in a video posted Thursday morning.
“Apparently my ex-boyfriend has been talking about our breakup publicly after 22 years,” she said before taking a sip of her drink
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Rancic said “it seems that his memory is just a little fuzzy”
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The entertainment reporter was lounging on a yacht while on vacation when she spoke
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“So I’m on vacation, my email’s been blowing up with like People magazine, all wanting a comment,” Rancic explained
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She said “I could give two sentences like, ‘Blah, blah, blah, I wish him all the best,’ or I could just take a deep dive and make it a 40-minute podcast”
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“Tune in next week, Bill and Giuliana: The Podcast. And Jerry, you are so invited,” Rancic teased. “We’d love to have you.”
When Ripa shared her memoir’s description of how O’Connell had “as much emotion as the customer service representative who tells you your bags missed the flight,” O’Connell told her: “That is a great line,” adding that Rancic is a very “smart girl”
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Rancic and O’Connell began dating in early 2003 after meeting at the W Hotel in San Diego and were together for roughly a year. In 2004, they attended the Maxim’s Hot 100 Party, where Rancic noticed the actor spending time with Rebecca Romijn, who would later become his wife
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In her 2015 tell-all, “Going Off Script,” Rancic claimed O’Connell dumped her over an intercom
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In the memoir, Rancic wrote that O’Connell dismissed her by saying, “Nope. Sorry, homegirl. Things change, but you take care, okay?”
Rancic claimed in her memoir that O’Connell admitted to cheating on her with Geri Halliwell, but they reconciled and continued the relationship
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After the Maxim party, O’Connell left for Las Vegas and stopped returning her calls, and when she tried to talk to him at his home, he refused to buzz her up
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“I would see Giuliana sometimes at Equinox, and I do this really funny thing. Everybody should do this with exes. It’s really funny,” he said on Monday’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast with Kelly Ripa
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He said he would “walk right up” to her “nose to nose” and obviously pretend to flirt with her in an over-the-top voice
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Rancic and her husband, Bill Rancic, launched their podcast in mid-May of 2026, distributed by iHeartPodcasts
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