John Malkovich Talks Michelle Pfeiffer Affair Nearly 40 Years After It Ruined Both Of Their Marriages

Actor John Malkovich has kept his mouth shut for nearly 40 years — but he finally admits that his hot affair with costar Michelle Pfeiffer while making Dangerous Liaisons destroyed both their marriages.

Malkovich, 71, wed late actress Glenne Headly in 1982, but they split in 1988 on the heels of his behind-the-scenes hookup while making a movie famously about seduction and betrayal.

“It’s not something I’ve ever really talked about,” he revealed on the Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud podcast. “Put it this way — in the work I do, you make emotional bonds with people very quickly. That’s part of the work.

“Very rarely, those bonds extend beyond the work.”

Michelle, now 67, was married at the time to actor-director Peter Horton, but their seven-year union came to a screeching halt at the same time, and they were officially divorced two years later.

In the Oscar-winning movie, Malkovich plays a schemer who, on a sick bet, seduces a virtuous young woman, played by Pfeiffer.

“For me, she was someone I valued greatly as a colleague, was great fun and moving, and with me, incredibly fair,” says Malkovich. “And I certainly wasn’t.”

He says he mourns the loss of his friendship with Michelle once the sizzling affair fizzled.

“I think I’ve learned over the course of my life that a great colleague is actually rarer than anything,” he says.