For six seasons, millions tuned into This Is Us to watch Milo Ventimiglia portray family patriarch Jack Pearson. While many were busy falling in love with the character for his portrayal of a loving dad and husband, one special person in Milo's life never watched him in this role ... until now.
On the October 15 episode of the That Was Us rewatch podcast, Milo sat down with former co-stars Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown and Chris Sullivan to talk about his time on the show. As they were discussing Milo's loved ones tuning in and watching the show, he revealed a surprising secret about his wife, Jarah Mariano.
As it turned out, she'd never seen the NBC drama while it was on the air. But ahead of the birth of the couple's first child, she decided she'd watch This Is Us on her own time.
"So my wife, she just finally started watching it," he told the group 26 minutes into the episode. "She’s barely ever seen anything I’ve ever really done ... She just decided to turn it on when I was away from the house, just to watch something while she's eating a meal," he added. "So, I’ll pop into the room and I’m like, 'Oh, s---.' She just got past the Super Bowl episode."
But that's not all Milo said on the subject. When Sterling prompted Milo about how Jarah was feeling about seeing her husband in emotional scenes, he had an interesting answer for her reaction.
"[Jarah] can separate Jack from me, but she’s just a f------ crier," he laughed. "It’s one of those things. She’s just crying and taking it in ... I’m not asking her, 'Hey, so tell me about this character, this scene, tell me stuff.' It's more just like, I’m waiting for her to want to talk to me about it."
As fans may remember, Milo was on the NBC drama from 2016 until 2022, where his character quickly became a topic of conversation. It was during this time that folks got to see Jack battle family trauma, ups and downs in his relationship with his wife Rebecca (played by Mandy) and his eventual death from a heart attack caused from smoke inhalation.
Although there are no plans for Milo to reprise the role in the future, it's nice to hear that Milo gets to experience the show through the eyes of the person he loves the most.
As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
