'I had no one to turn to': Minka Kelly opens up on 'toxic' relationship with 'FNL' co-star Taylor Kitsch in upcoming memoir
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Minka Kelly opens up about her "toxic" relationship with her 'Friday Night Lights' co-star, Taylor Kitsch, in her upcoming bombshell memoir, 'Tell Me Everything'. The 42-year-old Euphoria actress landed her first breakout role on the hit NBC series 'FNL' in 2006 but little did she know, the role would have a bigger impact on her real life.
In excerpts from her biography obtained by The Daily Beast, Kelly claims that her on-and-off bitter relationship with Kitsch not only affected her but also ruined her relationship with other cast members on the sets of NBC's teen sports drama from 2006 to 2011. The star who is currently dating Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds, also highlighted how not spilling the beans on the on-screen and off-screen couple's affair and maintaining a professional attitude made her look bad with "having no one to turn to."
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'Life became very difficult'
Kelly admitted despite her producer on the show, Peter Berg warning her, she "shacked up" with her co-star. "All the effort I might have invested in connecting consistently with the girls on the show went to Taylor," said Kelly, who played cheerleader Lyla alongside Kitsch, who played her love interest, a high school football player Tim Riggins. "So when my relationship with Taylor became toxic, I had no one to turn to," she explained in her book set to release on May 2. Kelly claimed that the pair broke up and got back together "more times than [she] [could] count."
She added, "Life became very difficult both on and off set whenever we broke up. We were young and had very few tools to handle our emotions and personal grievances." "On the days we had to work together and were broken up, he didn’t want to be in the hair and makeup trailer at the same time I was. We couldn’t ride in the van together from base camp to set for the same reason," she wrote in her memoir, detailing that 'tensions' were 'high' on days such as those, and that, 'everyone' felt the awkwardness. She revealed her co-stars would support Kitsch and take him out for drinks instead of her because he was more open about his "feelings" with other castmates.
'Vulnerability begets connection!'
Kelly, who starred in the first three seasons of 'Friday Night Lights' before briefly appearing in the fourth season, said, "I’d show up to work with a smile on my face thinking I was being professional, while everyone else felt sorry for the guy whose heart had just been broken." "My co-workers weren’t taking me out for drinks after work to mend my broken heart," she said and added that, "they were taking him out." As for Kitsch, he remained on the series for five seasons with other celebrity co-stars Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Zach Gilford, as well as Aimee Teegarden and Scott Porter.
Despite deeming her relationship with Taylor as toxic, Kelly admitted the relationship taught her a valuable lesson. "Vulnerability begets connection, as evidenced by the outcome of both our coping mechanisms," Kelly wrote in the memoir. She added, "My tough-guy approach only left me alone. If you behave as if you need no one, if no one around you knows any better, most certainly, no one will, in fact, be there."