Martha Stewart used to date Anthony Hopkins. Then she saw him in 'Silence of the Lambs'

Anthony Hopkins could have ended up with Martha Stewart, if he wasn't such a horrifyingly good actor.

In a clip from her appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Thursday, Stewart, 80, confessed she and Hopkins, 84, used to date.

But that came to halt, Stewart said, after Hopkins' terrifying turn as cannibal Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film "The Silence of the Lambs" made her see her British beau in a whole new light.

"I dated Sir Anthony Hopkins but broke up with him because I couldn't stop thinking of him as Hannibal Lecter," she revealed to DeGeneres.

Hopkins' work in that film went down in history as one of the most frightening film performances of all time. It won Hopkins an Oscar for best actor, but lost him his romance with Stewart.

“I have a big, scary house in Maine that’s way by itself on 100 acres in a forest, and I couldn’t even imagine taking Anthony Hopkins there," Stewart told DeGeneres. "I couldn’t, because all I could think of was him eating, you know."

The cultured-yet-calculating ex-psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter first appeared in Thomas Harris' 1981 book "Red Dragon" and was memorably played by Hopkins in three movies.

Hopkins was previously married to Petronella Barker from 1966 to 1972 and to Jennifer Lynton from 1973 to 2002. He is currently married to Stella Arroyave, whom he wed in 2003.

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Stewart was married to Andrew Stewart from 1961 to 1990 and opened up about her divorce to People magazine in 2020.

"Getting divorced was a terrible thing for me, because we were the first to divorce in my family," she said. "And that we haven’t spoken since the divorce is even more painful. But I’m very strong, and I’m very motivated to get on with life."

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Contributing: Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Martha Stewart dumped Anthony Hopkins after seeing him as Hannibal