Oprah: What did it feel like to fall in love?

Julia: It was horrible. You don't want to lose your friend. Or what if he doesn't love you? You start playing out all these crazy scenarios. I talked to him on the phone a few times [after breaking up with Benjamin Bratt] and did the whole thing of, "Oh, hi, how are you? I'd love to chat, but, you know, I'm just out the door." We went through that little stage.

Oprah: You knew he was married. What effect did that have on you then?

Julia: Huge. But he sorted his whole thing out, separate and apart from me. And I sorted my life out, separate and apart from him. I think that's the only reason we were able to ultimately fall in love with each other and be together.

Oprah: So you didn't cause the breakup of his marriage.

Julia: No. I'm an easy person to point the finger at—"She did it"—and I see that. I don't begrudge people the easy finger-point. It just doesn't happen to be so.

Oprah: You've fallen in love before, right?

Julia: Yes and no. I've had that sort of first-enamored, butterfly-like feeling. But it wasn't connected to reality. When you look at the perils that Danny and I have already gone through, it had better be tethered to something solid, or else it would disintegrate.

Oprah: What do you mean by perils?

Julia: The way the press made it a bit of a circus. He'd never dealt with that, certainly.

Oprah: Did you prepare him for it?

Julia: I didn't anticipate the zoo.

Oprah: Even knowing everything you know? Because we know about every single guy you've ever dated—

Julia: And some that I haven't dated. We think we know.

Oprah: Why did you wear that T-shirt? [Julia was photographed wearing a shirt that read A LOW VERA. Some thought this was a reference to Danny's ex-wife, Vera.] What was that about?

Julia: You know what that was about? It was private.

Oprah: Okay.

Julia: I stand by my T-shirt.