Sally Field 'did not' attend Burt Reynolds's memorial service: publicist
Burt Reynolds was memorialized by loved ones on Wednesday, but Sally Field was not in attendance.
Despite multiple reports that Field was in West Palm Beach, Fla., for the celebration of Reynolds’s life — one even noted that she “entered the church through a side door” before the service began — a spokesperson for the actress, who has been busy promoting her new memoir, says Field actually “did not” attend.
Online photos of the program show that the service was held at the Family Church. The service included performances from pianist Copeland Davis and Broadway star Avery Sommers, a eulogy from the actor’s The Last Movie Star co-star Todd Vittum, and a prayer from his Smokey and the Bandit II co-star Patrick Moody.
When Reynolds died unexpectedly on Sept. 6, Fields issued a statement saying, “There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy.”
However, while the actress, who had a five-year romance with Reynolds after they met on 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit (just a few years ago, he called her the love of his life), has been promoting her new book, In Pieces, she said she was relieved he wouldn’t be reading it because it would hurt him. She painted him as controlling and said their relationship was “hurtful” to her.
And during an appearance Tuesday on The View, she said that she hadn’t spoken to Reynolds for the last 30 years.
“He was a hugely important part of my life, but for a very short period of my life,” she said, noting that they dated seriously for three years and then were hot-and-cold for two. “I really didn’t speak to him for the last 30 years of his life. I would feel him kind of reach out to me via the press. It was something that he would do even when we were dating. He would speak to me about things that he could call me on the phone about. He would do the Today show and say, ‘I need to tell Sally…’ Well, OK! He will always be in my heart and in my history. I think at least he’s not hurting right now.”
When asked about his 2015 “love of my life” comment, she replied, “Well, in retrospect.”
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
