Harry Connick Jr. Recalls 'Completely Inappropriate' Encounter When Frank Sinatra Kissed His Wife
The old “never meet your heroes” adage rang true for Harry Connick Jr.
On Tuesday, the singer opened up to the U.K. show This Morning about the first time he met his idol Frank Sinatra — and it didn’t go well.
During the interview, Connick, 52, revealed that back in the early ’90s, he was attending an event with his then-girlfriend (now wife), model Jill Goodacre, 55. After singing at the event, Connick — who was not pleased with his performance — went to explain himself to Sinatra. Connick and Goodacre shared an elevator with the crooner, who ignored Connick and instead flirted with his date.
“He looked at [her] and kind of placed her face in his hands and said, ‘You’re beautiful,’ and he kissed her right on the mouth, walked out of the elevator and that was the end of that,” Connick recalled of Sinatra, who died in 1998 at the age of 82, during the This Morning interview.
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Years have passed since the encounter, and Connick and Goodacre married in 1994 and share three daughters, Georgia, 23, Sarah, 22, and Charlotte, 17. But he added that they still have a laugh about the incident which the show’s host noted would be unacceptable in a post-#metoo world.
“I never got to sing for him again, she loves to remind me of that story,” Connick said of his wife. “I think it was probably unacceptable then, but it was a situation where it was an interesting thing — I think because of my affection for him, in the context, she thought it was hilarious. But obviously it’s completely inappropriate.”
In 2017, Connick and Goodacre opened up to PEOPLE about their lasting bond, which they say was only strengthened by her five-year breast cancer battle.
“She’s my best friend, and I really don’t know what I would do without her,” Connick told PEOPLE at the time. “I think one of the reasons we’ve lasted this long is that we’re so aligned in every way. We have the same morals, the same goals.”
