Brian Austin Green revealed that working with a significant other isn’t always fun — like when Tiffani Thiessen joined Beverly Hills, 90210.
Green, 51, recalled the start of his relationship with Thiessen, 51, during the Monday, April 28, episode of his “Oldish” podcast.
“I had a crush on her before 90210 because we used to do all these teen magazines or whatever,” Green said, noting that Thiessen was on Saved by the Bell when their romance began. “I was like, ‘Oh I don’t stand a chance. I’m reaching way above my weight class on this one.’”
When Green did shoot his shot, he was “beside” himself to find out that Thiessen was in fact interested. “I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever,’ because I’d never dated anyone before I’d never put myself out there as I did with her.”
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Once they were a couple, Green remembered bringing Thiessen with him to Beverly Hills, 90210, functions. Eventually he got a call from the showrunners asking, “How would you feel about her coming on the show?”
Green said he wasn’t sure what that meant, but if it was one or two episodes he “absolutely” thought it’d be a good idea.
“I had no idea she was going to replace Shannen [Doherty] at that point and her story line is going to be this [big] … and it was just the hardest thing in the world,” Green confessed.
Green was part of the original cast of Beverly Hills, 90210, playing David Silver. Thiessen, meanwhile, joined during season 5 in 1994 as Valerie Malone. Thiessen was hot off her time as Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell, while 90210 was filling the void of Doherty’s Brenda Walsh leaving the show.
Green admitted on Monday that since the “set was my home” and the cast was his “family,” he had a tough time with Thiessen coming in and infiltrating his sanctuary.
“This was more of a complete family, and I was there all day long every single day so all of a sudden she comes in and she’s working with people, not with me,” he recalled. “She has a dressing [room] in the same hallway, but we have different call times, and we have different things going on.”
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The former Anger Management actor confessed, “It was just an invasion in my space and what had become so dear to me as a kid not having that big family feeling? It was that. That show was so crazy, and nobody understood it like the other people on the show. Nobody would get it. So it was a really special bond.”
Green revealed that the strain of Thiessen being part of the cast full-time “for sure” was the “downfall” of their relationship.
“I was so incredibly jealous of story lines. There was just absolutely not a shred of maturity in the way I dealt. I was a wreck,” he confessed. “Every time I’d get a new script I was like, ‘Oh her character starts with Luke [Perry] and now she’s with Ian [Ziering].’ She literally dated every guy on the show.”
Green noted that by the time Thiessen’s character started to date his, “We were broken up. It was ridiculous.”
Now that he has had time to reflect on the ups and downs with Thiessen, Green told his listeners he wishes he could take back his negative reactions.
“I can’t imagine how hard that was for her. The excitement of, ‘Oh, I’m going to go work on the show!’ and it just becoming so miserable to be there,” Green said. “She knew how horribly it was affecting me and us. And she wasn’t writing the scripts — she couldn’t do anything about it.”
The BH90210 alum noted that Thiessen had a “front row seat” to see the “relationship go away” because the tense on-set dynamic followed them home to their joint apartment.
“I want to share my life with someone but at the same time it’s my space, so it’s hard for me to be like, ‘Yeah let’s make a decision together,’” Green continued. “I’m definitely not the best at cohabitating and being a partner in that way.”
He added that he is “really opinionated” and when things don’t go his way, “the sensitive side of me easily comes in and it takes a minute for me to step back and go, ‘Ok it’s just a chair. Let’s just let it go.’”
Green has a history of dating his costars — both before and after Thiessen. He briefly romanced his Beverly Hills, 90210, love interest Tori Spelling (who played Donna Martin) from 1990 to 1991.
Green moved on with Thiessen in 1992, but after three years together they called it quits. Thiessen, however, remained on the show until season 9 in 1998. (Green was on the series until its end in 2000.)
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The actor met Vanessa Marcil when she joined Beverly Hills, 90210, and they dated from 1999 to 2003. The exes share one son, Kassius, who was born in 2002.
Green married Megan Fox in June 2010. The pair welcomed three sons, Noah, Bodhi, and Journey, in 2012, 2014 and 2016, respectively. Green announced in May 2020 that he and Fox, 38, were getting divorced.
Us Weekly exclusively confirmed in December 2020 that Green was dating Sharna Burgess. The couple welcomed their first child, son Zane, in June 2022, and got engaged the following year.
Thiessen, meanwhile, has been married to actor Brady Smith since July 2005. The couple share two children, daughter Harper, 14, and son Holt, 9.
