Eastwood was asked about the last time he cried during a 2016 interview with GQ Australia.
“I dated a girl a couple of years ago who died in a car accident,” he said at the time, referring to Jewel.
Eastwood recalled that the crash itself was only a “fender bender,” but the recalled airbag exploded and “shot a projectile through her body,” causing fatal injuries.
“It split her spine, and um… I’ve never told anybody that,” he added. “I’ve lost friends before; I’ve lost some great friends. But I had never lost someone I had been really intimate with, you know, like in that way, in a relationship. I think that really affected me in a way that… I don’t know. Maybe it’s made it harder for me to date.”
The Gran Torino actor made another rare comment about Jewel and their relationship on Shepard’s podcast, explaining that the recalled, defective airbag turned what could have been a survivable crash into a fatal one.
“Being on a film set when someone passes, or something happens, it’s really tough because you don’t have time to grieve. The show must go on,” he explained. “You can’t fly home, you’re stuck, you’ve got to work.”
Per Eastwood, he dealt with Jewel’s death by shutting down emotionally and putting his grief aside until later, describing it as a “classic defense mechanism.” He admitted he “completely blacked out” the experience and did not allow himself to fully process the loss at the time, which was “not a great thing.”
“You do want to grieve with the people that are around that you know and were part of their lives as well. That’s an important part of the grieving process,” he shared. “I had to deal with that grief later.”
