Tori Spelling Threatened By Dean McDermott’s Cheating: ‘This Wasn’t Going Away’
It’s been two years since Tori Spelling learned that her husband, Dean McDermott, had been cheating on her and, as the scandal hit the tabloids, Spelling felt understandably confused and pressured by the public scrutiny she had felt cast upon her. Now, Tori is ready to open up about it all. She is also documenting her reconciliation with husband McDermott in a televised event, so everyone can understand the trials that infidelity had cast upon her marriage.
This wasn’t all her own choice. Spelling reveals in a Lenny Letter interview that a large part of her decision to expose her private life to television viewers has been because she felt she had no other choice.
Tori Spelling Admits She Felt “Backed Into A Corner” By The Tabloids
It happened over the holidays, just two years ago, and Tori still recalls feeling pressured from all sides, as Dean’s cheating made front page tabloid news. It seemed the only way out was to come clean and open up her personal life to the public. In fact, as Tori reveals, she couldn’t see any other choice.
“I always say I can replay everything that happened during that time,” the Beverly Hills 90210 actress said. “The hardest part about it was, like, ‘You’re really going to put this on the cover of the magazine three days before Christmas? It’s Christmas. It’s family. I know we’re in Hollywood, and I know we put a lot of ourselves out there, but really, we do this?'”
When she expressed her confusion to her friends, Tori was advised to follow the examples of Hollywood’s A-list celebrities and do a big movie to draw the public’s attention away from the scandal, but Spelling says that felt wrong.
“That’s not my life,” she said. “That’s not my relationship with my fans. I’m not the type that can just go from talking about everything and then it’s like, ‘No personal questions,’ the next time I do something.”
As for Dean McDermott, Spelling says he was in the worst place of his life, struggling to come back from his unfaithfulness, as well as working his way through rehab, so he was completely open to letting Tori handle things in her own way. She says, if Dean had been dead set against the television special, she would have respected his wishes and found another way to cope with the situation.
Tori Spelling Also Hits Rock Bottom, As NBC Drops Her NoTORIous Comedy
Tori Spelling recalled her own worst day and just where she was, when she got the news that left her feeling that her career had taken a terrible turn. She was at the Kentucky Derby with friend Tara Reid, when she received the call notifying her that NBC was dropping NoTORIous and picking up My Name is Earl instead.
Ironically, Tori had created the series, which ended up finding a home on VH1, because auditioning for other people’s shows was getting her nowhere. The actress says people were intimidated by her father, Aaron Spelling, and the legacy he left behind, so they were unwilling to give Tori the chance to prove herself.
“I created that because I literally was so sick of going on auditions and having producers say, ‘She’s really great, but we just can’t get past the fact that she’s Tori Spelling,'” she added. “It felt like I couldn’t do anything right.”
The actress reveals she’s had enough and is ready to follow in her father’s footsteps. Tori Spelling is eager to begin directing, helping others to realize their dreams and to bring their ideas to the screen.
[Featured image by Angela Weiss/Getty Images for Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation]
