Sally Field laid bare shocking details of relationship with Burt Reynolds

Sally Field shocked fans with her bombshell claims about her ex Burt Reynolds with whom she stayed for around five years.

Field revealed that he once tried to block her from starring in Norma Rae, the role that would earn her first Academy Award.

The 79-year-old actress recalled in a new interview with People Reynolds’ strong opposition when she landed the 1979 drama.

“It was the beginning of me pulling away when he didn’t want me to do Norma Rae,” Field said, noting he threw the script at her and dismissed the character as “a w-----.”

“He wanted to control me, and because I was standing up, he said, ‘Boy, you’re letting this get the better of you.’ And I said, ‘This is the better of me.’”

Field went ahead with the project, meeting director Marty Ritt and ultimately delivering a performance that transformed her career.

She remembered the film’s premiere at Cannes Film Festival as a turning point: “It was a standing ovation for like 10 minutes, and I started to cry… After I had worked so hard to get out of television, to even be considered for anything, and here I was.”

Reynolds, she added, refused to attend the Oscars with her the night she won Best Actress.

“Being Norma at that time was exactly what I needed,” Field explained. “I could feel my body getting stronger… I eventually just wouldn’t be manipulated and humiliated like that. And ultimately I left.”

The pair first met on Smokey and the Bandit in 1977 and reunited for several films, including Hooper and The End.

Field described their five-year relationship as both charming and frightening, likening Reynolds’ darker side to her abusive stepfather.

“There were parts of Burt that were so wonderful and lovable, and then there were parts that were really frightening,” she said.

The couple split for good in 1982.

Field later married producer Alan Greisman in 1984, welcoming son Sam before divorcing in 1994.

She has remained single since.

As she wrote in her 2018 memoir In Pieces, released just days after Reynolds’ death, he was “a hugely important part of my life but for a very short period of my life… I really didn’t speak to him for the last 30 years of his life.”