While Scheana Shay name-dropped Jesse Metcalfe and their brief relationship in her My Good Side memoir, the actor admits that he hasn’t actually read his ex’s tell-all book.
“I just became aware of the book, like, a couple days ago,” Metcalfe, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly at Ticket2Event’s 12th Annual Luxury Luncheon hosted by Jill Zarin, Brian Kelly and Sean Koski on Saturday, July 26. “So, no, I haven’t read it yet.”
Shay’s memoir hit shelves on Tuesday, July 22, featuring tell-all anecdotes about the Vanderpump Rules alum’s dating history and more. In one passage, Shay, now 40, claimed that she dated Metcalfe in 2007.
“It felt like I was living a real-life fantasy with this guy I’d watched on TV and in movies for years,” Shay wrote, noting she had a “great time” with the John Tucker Must Die actor. “Our relationship didn’t happen right away. Soon after we first met, he went to rehab, so we started hanging out often only after he finished.”
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Shay further claimed that Metcalfe took her on a date after leaving rehab to the red carpet premiere of Cloverfield.
“I then spent my 22nd birthday at dinner with him,” she wrote. “I vividly remember sticking to water and Red Bull all night as a way of supporting his sobriety.”
While Metcalfe has yet to pick up Shay’s book, he was thankful that the reality TV star mentioned him in a favorable light.
“It’s always nice when people speak highly of you,” he told Us. “It’s better than people speaking ill of you.”
Metcalfe previously spoke about Shay mentioning their fling in her memoir on a recent episode of Tori Spelling’s “Misspelling” podcast earlier this month.
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“She spoke highly of me, which was nice,” he said at the time. “[It was a] long time ago, 20 years ago. We were dating. I mean, it was — overall — it was pretty brief, but we were seeing each other on a regular basis.”
Metcalfe also joked that he tried to keep the book “away” from his current girlfriend, Helene Immel. They’ve been dating since 2023, even walking the Southampton Inn red carpet together on Saturday.
Metcalfe’s life in the spotlight also inspired his new unisex Nutrl Skin brand.
“I guess it all started just from being asked about my skincare routine on the red carpet, and I also had acne as a teenager, like many of us do,” he told Us. “I got introduced to a lot of topicals that are common in skincare products. I included a lot of standard topical ingredients in my skincare line, but I also added these really powerful peptide complexes that are incredibly anti-aging and boost collagen by like 350 percent. But, the ethos of the brand is just a really simple, effective routine that is super, super clean. [There’s] no fragrances, no silicones, no parabens [and it is] vegan, cruelty-free, organic.”
He added, “I swear by this product line. It’s been a labor of love. It’s taken me two years to bring it to market. I formulated these products, built this brand from the ground up and people seem to be responding to it.”
