The actress famously co-starred alongside John Travolta in Look Who's Talking back in 1989. Behind the scenes, according to Alley, they fell in love with each other—but didn't physically act on their feelings.
"It wasn't a sexual relationship because I'm not going to cheat on my husband. But, you know I think there are things that are way worse than sexual relationships, than cheating on someone that way because I consider what I did even worse because I actually let myself fall in love with him and stay in love with him for a long time," the star explained to Dan Wootton in an interview for his eponymous podcast.
As Alley described, she was married to then-husband Parker Stevenson while Travolta dated his now-wife Kelly Preston before they crossed paths for Look Who's Talking.
"He had dated Kelly Preston before he did Look Who's Talking with me and then I would say he would agree that it was mutual that we sort of fell in love with each other," she told Wootton. "When it became very apparent that I wasn't going anywhere, I was staying married…and then he started seeing Kelly again."
While Alley even gave Travolta her stamp of approval on Preston, she admitted that she flirted with him "like crazy" on their second movie together—and his new wife noticed. "Kelly came up to me and she said uh—and they were married then—she said, 'Um, why are you flirting with my husband?'"
As Alley continued, "That was sort of when I had to make a decision—are you going to be this girl that's not only married, but he's now married and just flirting in a way…you're still acting like you're together somehow when you're not. It was sort of kooky...so I made the decision and that was pretty much the end of that."
The actress considers making that decision as one of the hardest in her life. "I knew I had to make a decision, too—I'm either going to be this creepy girl who flirts with her husband…I just had to make a decision. Are you going to be that girl or are you going to have these guys as friends and have that kind of life?" she told Wootton. "I will say it's one of the hardest things I've ever done…the hardest decision—one of the hardest decisions I've had to make because I was madly in love with him."
While discussing the Grease and Saturday Night Fever legend, Wootton pointed out that Alley must not believe the rumors that Travolta is gay. In 2012, several men filed since-dismissed lawsuits against the actor, accusing him of sexual misconduct. Travolta denied all the allegations.
"No, I don't," Alley answered. "I mean, I know him pretty well—and I know the love."
The comment echoes a previous rebuttal she gave years ago to Barbara Walters.
"I know John with all my heart and soul; he's not gay," Alley told her in a 2012 interview. "I think in some weird way, in Hollywood, if someone gets big enough and famous enough, and they're not out doing drugs and they're not womanizing, what do you say about them?"
While discussing a lawsuit from a man who claimed to have had a romantic relationship with him, Travolta told The Daily Beast, "This is every celebrity's Achilles heel. It's just about people wanting money. That's all. It happens on many levels."