Lori Loughlin has always had a steadfast hand to hold onto with John Stamos, her onscreen husband from the '90s sitcom Full House. "I've known her for forty years," he shared on the October 20 episode of the Good Guys podcast. "You can see through people after a few years. This woman's a saint."
Throughout the decades, Stamos has witnessed Loughlin navigate through tough times, including her recent separation from husband Mossimo Giannulli, which followed their prison sentences for their involvement in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal. In 2019, Loughlin and Giannulli made headlines when they were accused of securing fraudulent admissions for their daughters Isabella Rose Giannulli, 27, and Olivia Jade Giannulli, 26, to attend the University of Southern California.
In 2020, the actress pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while the fashion designer pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud. They were sentenced to two months and five months in prison, respectively.
"I'm not going to debate whether she had much to do with it or not," Stamos continued. "I know she didn't." As for Giannulli and Loughlin's split after nearly 28 years as husband and wife—with her rep telling People they are "living apart and taking a break from their marriage" but "there are no legal proceedings at this time"—Stamos expressed his heartbreak for her. "She's just devastated," he added on the podcast. "For a girl who has lived her life really well, a good person, a good mother, a good wife—I know all this for a fact—to be thrown into this separation and blowing up her family this way, and I just hate to see her go through this. I really do."
However, Stamos advised Loughlin to truly analyze her relationship with Giannulli. "I said, 'Look, whatever negativity or hardships that you've been through in your life is connected to this guy.'" As for the reason for the pair's split, Stamos didn't go into detail but shared his feelings about Giannulli. "I will never talk to him again," he stated. "He's a terrible narcissist and I don't think you ever get out of that unless you're able to."
Stamos has not been the only one to come to Loughlin's defense. In fact, he has repeatedly stood by her side following the college admissions scandal. "She wasn't really the architect of any of it," he said on a 2024 episode of Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert. "She was in the background. She really didn't know what was going on." While fans may think Stamos and Loughlin's friendship started when she joined Full House in 1988, their bond actually goes further back.
"We were friends," he said on HuffPost Live in 2013. "We were on the soaps together." In fact, the ER alum said the two even went on a date to Disneyland when they were in their late teens. However, a romance didn't form. Loughlin went on to marry her first husband Michael Burns in 1989—they finalized their divorce in 1996 and she wed Giannulli the following year—and Stamos married Rebecca Romijn in 1998.
"We did have some off timing," continued Stamos, who married Caitlin McHugh in 2018, 13 years after his divorce from Romijn was finalized. "No disrespect to her family and husband now, I would say that she could be the one that got away." And while Stamos is happily married to Caitlin—mother of their 7-year-old son Billy—Loughlin continues to hold a place in his heart as a friend. They're even neighbors, and followers have gotten peeks into their bond in recent years on both red carpets and social media.
