Milo Ventimiglia And Alyssa Milano: Inside Their Charmed Friendship And Why She Named Her Baby After Him

Milo Ventimiglia has a special place in his heart for Alyssa Milano. Long before he co-starred with her in the 2008 horror movie Pathology, Milo had a major crush on the actress during her days as a teen star on the 1980s/’90s sitcom Who’s the Boss? In an interview with W magazine, Ventimiglia acknowledged that back in the day, “everybody” his age had a crush on Milano. However, Milo said he lucked out and got to work with her 15 years later, and that they eventually became close friends.

“I think everybody had a crush on Alyssa Milano, on Who’s the Boss?,” Ventimiglia told W of his first crush.

“And then this is the craziest part: she and I did a movie where she played my fiancée. So the first part of the movie, I kind of had to get past that… But, still, when I was a kid, it was totally Alyssa Milano.”

Milo went on to say that when he first met his crush in person, he “played it off pretty cool” and didn’t let on that she was his teenage dream girl.

“You know, she became a friend,” Milo revealed.

“Her and her husband, we’ve all been close friends. And they named their kid Milo.”

This isn’t the first time Milo Ventimiglia talked about his teen crush on Milano. Last fall he told Entertainment Weekly he agreed with his TV son Sterling K. Brown that Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, was one of his TV teen idols, but that he had to give a shout out to Samantha from Who’s the Boss.

“Definitely had a crush on her and made it awkward when she played my fiancée in a movie,” Ventimiglia said.

In a new interview with People, Milano claims she had “no idea” Milo ever had the hots for her. In fact, she credits Ventimiglia for encouraging her to date her future husband David Bugliari, who worked for the talent agency that represented her.

“I used to confide in Milo Ventimiglia and say, ‘Is that weird if I date an agent that’s at my agency?’ and he was very, like, ‘No, if you’re compatible, you should go for it,’ ” Alyssa told People.

“So I feel like he was responsible for my husband and [me] getting together.”

When her first son was born a few years later, Milano said it was a no-brainer to name him after the guy who was behind her initial date with her baby daddy.

“I loved that name,” she said of Ventimiglia’s moniker.

“But when Milo was born, he just looked like a Milo to me and I thought it would be a lovely homage to Milo Ventimiglia for encouraging me to find my love.”

Milano told The Insider that Ventimiglia Ventimiglia was always super supportive” of her relationship with Bugliari, to the extent that they named their first child after him.

“So I hope he feels a little bit better,” the actress said of Ventimiglia.

While they have a close off-screen friendship, Alyssa Milano draws the line at watching Milo Ventimiglia as patriarch Jack Pearson on the tissue-worthy NBC drama, This Is Us. The actress said Milo’s starring stint as the dying dad on the hit series makes her cry.

“I from other things too much nowadays, so I can’t watch that show,” she said.

You can see Milo Ventimiglia and his first crush in the trailer for Pathology below.

[Featured Image by Dan Steinberg/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images]