Giuliana Rancic unleashes on ‘cold’ ex-boyfriend Jerry O’Connell

Giuliana Rancic’s breakup drama with ex Jerry O’Connell is still raging over 20 years later as she aired out more details of their ‘traumatizing’ relationship.

On Wednesday’s bombshell episode of the Bill and Giuliana podcast featuring her husband Bill Rancic, 55, the 51-year-old TV personality described O’Connell, 52, as ‘cold’ and accused him of ‘downplaying’ their over year-long romance.

She was responding to claims made by O’Connell, who has since admitted to being a ‘terrible boyfriend’ to Rancic, about their messy 2004 split on Kelly Ripa’s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera last week.

Ripa had pressed him about dumping Rancic over his Los Angeles condo’s intercom – a moment detailed in Rancic’s 2015 memoir Going Off Script, where she alleged he told her: ‘Nope, sorry, homegirl…Things change, but you take care, OK?’

O’Connell told Ripa that Rancic had showed up ‘unannounced’ while he was there with another woman before highlighting that she did not have a key – seemingly suggesting that his relationship with Rancic wasn’t a serious one.

Rancic took issue with this portrayal as she insisted on Wednesday’s podcast that ‘for a year and a half – except for the one breakup’ she and O’Connell ‘were together 24/7 every day, every night.’

Giuliana Rancic’s breakup drama with ex Jerry O’Connell is still raging over 20 years later as she aired out more details of their ‘traumatizing’ relationship; seen in 2003

She continued: ‘You could listen to his interview [with Ripa] and think maybe this was an easy relationship, he was dating a bunch of girls, but no. It was a real relationship.’ 

Rancic then expanded on her side of their breakup, claiming that she had not seen or heard from O’Connell in five days prior to their now-infamous condo confrontation.

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‘Finally, I said, ‘Jerry, I’m gonna call the police,’ like I’m really worried about you,’ she recalled writing to her then-boyfriend.

She claimed that O’Connell responded by urging her to ‘not call the police’ before telling her that he had ‘got back to LA’ and was at his condo.

‘He goes, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ So I was like, oh my God, okay. So I write, I’m coming over, like, I haven’t seen you in like five days. What’s going on?

‘So I go over there, and that’s where this whole thing happened.’

Rancic said that their explosive back-and-forth began via O’Connell’s intercom before moving to his condo balcony. 

‘He was literally standing on the balcony looking at me. … He didn’t want to see me in person. He didn’t have enough courage to come down and see me face-to-face, like a foot away, and instead did it from a balcony,’ she claimed.

She was responding to claims made by O’Connell, who has since admitted to being a ‘terrible boyfriend’ to Rancic, about their messy 2004 split on Kelly Ripa’s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera last week

‘It was traumatizing,’ she said of her and O’Connell’s split. ‘It truly was, and I just could not believe what I was hearing’; seen in 2021

‘He broke up with me from a balcony. And I honestly thought it was because he was just like over it, done, and he was just like, bye.’

She described the ordeal as ‘devastating, heartbreaking, humiliating’ and that she was left in complete disbelief.

‘It was traumatizing,’ she added. ‘It truly was, and I just could not believe what I was hearing.’

Rancic also touched on her wild allegation that O’Connell had been unfaithful to her while shooting a movie with Spice Girls star Geri Halliwell in London back in 2003.

She claimed that everything was ‘perfect and ‘totally fine’ between her and O’Connell before he left for the overseas shoot.

However, Rancic was soon met with what she described as the ‘most shocking moment of [her] life’ when pH๏τos of O’Connell and Halliwell holding hands surfaced.

‘I walked into a voiceover booth and fell to the ground, crying hysterically,’ she recalled. ‘It was awful. So upsetting and so devastating.’

Rancic also touched on her wild allegation that O’Connell had been unfaithful to her while shooting a movie with Spice Girls star Geri Halliwell (seen second from left in 1997) in London back in 2003.

Rancic said she called O’Connell to confront him about the PDA pH๏τos, to which she alleged he said: ‘Yeah, sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. I screwed up’; seen in 2004

Rancic said she called O’Connell to confront him about the PDA pH๏τos, to which she alleged he said: ‘Yeah, sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. I screwed up.’

‘I was left to pick up the pieces of what was literally a perfect relationship for a year,’ said Rancic after having convinced herself that O’Connell was ‘crazy’ about her.

However, Rancic said that O’Connell successfully wormed his way back into her life after his alleged fling with Halliwell ended.

She claimed that the actor called up one of her friends ‘crying’ before showing up to her apartment, where he allegedly begged her to forgive him in the lobby before following her to the elevator.

‘”I am so sorry. I made the biggest mistake of my life. I don’t know what I was thinking. Please take me back. You’re the love of my life,”‘ she recalled him allegedly saying to her during the emotional encounter.

Rancic ended up taking him back but their relationship would end for good only a few months later after O’Connell allegedly went MIA following a trip to Las Vegas – which eventually led to their intercom breakup in Los Angeles.

‘The whole thing was just crazy. Listen, at the end of the day, you know, here we are 22 years later and, obviously, we both moved on,’ said Rancic, who has been happily married to husband Bill since 2007.

As for O’Connell, he has also been married since 2007 to actress/model Rebecca Romijn, 53.

‘The whole thing was just crazy. Listen, at the end of the day, you know, here we are 22 years later and, obviously, we both moved on,’ said Rancic

 ‘I do love that Jerry is an open book, even if his memory is a little fuzzy. And the entire podcast that we’re doing today is coming from a nice place. It’s coming from a place of love,’ Rancic told listeners; seen in 2004

‘I do love that Jerry is an open book, even if his memory is a little fuzzy. And the entire podcast that we’re doing today is coming from a nice place. It’s coming from a place of love,’ Rancic told listeners.

‘I truly believe everything happens for a reason. We are both happily married now, we both have great families, and we are both exactly where we’re meant to be.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for O’Connell and Halliwell but has yet to hear back. 

Rancic first responded to O’Connell’s now-viral remarks about their romance with Kelly Ripa earlier this week when she posted a video to her Instagram Story that showed her sipping a cocktail on a boat during a holiday.

Lambasting O’Connell for his ‘fuzzy’ memory of their split, Rancic said that she ‘could give two sentences’ and ‘wish him all the best,’ but had decided instead to fire back with a full ‘deep dive’ episode of her podcast.

‘So, you guys heard?’ she asked fans in a confidential tone. ‘Apparently my ex-boyfriend has been talking about our breakup publicly after 22 years. Hmm, imagine that, and it seems that his memory’s just a little fuzzy.’

Rancic noted her email had been ‘blowing up’ while she was ‘on vacation,’ and she admitted that she had mulled the prospect of a brief statement wishing him ‘the best,’ but will instead be releasing a ’40-minute podcast’ on the subject next week.

‘And Jerry, you are so invited. We’d love to have you,’ added Rancic, who co-hosts her podcast with her husband of nearly two decades, Bill Rancic.

When Kelly Ripa raised the subject of the old breakup to O’Connell on her own podcast last week, he freely admitted that he ‘was a terrible boyfriend’ to Rancic.

Rancic first sensationally alleged that O’Connell was unfaithful to her with Geri Halliwell in her 2015 memoir but that she ultimately forgave him, only for their romance to end again when he took up with his now-wife Rebecca Romijn.

Although he stopped short of outright confessing to infidelity while speaking with Ripa, he described himself as a ‘bad boyfriend’ and offered an apology to Rancic.

Ripa then brought up the intercom breakup and read the relevant pᴀssage of Rancic’s book, leaving O’Connell saying he was ‘sweating’ and felt as if he were on ‘trial.’

Rancic first responded to O’Connell’s now-viral remarks about their romance with Kelly Ripa earlier this week when she posted a video to her Instagram Story that showed her sipping a cocktail on a boat during a holiday

She has been happily married to The Apprentice winner Bill Rancic, 55, since 2007

He explained that he ‘broke up with her through an intercom’ because she ‘came to my condominium and hit the intercom’ while he was entertaining what Ripa slyly referred to as ‘company’ and he characterized only as ‘someone.’

Rancic, he claimed, ‘wanted entry,’ but he had ‘paid a pretty hefty homeowners’ fee’ for such amenities as a buzzer, a gate and cameras to stave off unwanted visitors.

‘And I said: “I did not know you were coming. You can’t come up here. You can’t come here unannounced.” Notice no one had a key, so the relationship was not like that,’ O’Connell pleaded in his defense.

He added that he ‘didn’t like someone coming to my condominium without an invite’ or even any ‘warning,’ and he ‘didn’t want any confrontation.’

When Ripa pressed him about the precise verbiage Rancic accused him of using while speaking to her on the intercom, O’Connell hedged, saying he did not ‘recall exact wording so I can’t deny that I said that.’