For decades, Christopher McDonald and Geena Davis shared a Hollywood connection most fans knew little about.

Long before they played husband and wife in Thelma & Louise, they were actually planning to become husband and wife in real life.

Now, at 71, McDonald has opened up about how that relationship came to a painful end — and how Jeff Goldblum became part of the story.

McDonald revealed that he and Davis had been engaged for approximately five weeks when she traveled to Europe to film the 1985 movie Transylvania 6-5000.

Her co-star was Jeff Goldblum.

While McDonald remained behind performing in Hamlet, Davis and Goldblum grew close.

Then came the news McDonald wasn’t expecting: Davis had fallen in love with Goldblum.

McDonald admitted the breakup left him devastated.

But remarkably, there doesn’t appear to be bitterness today.

Years later, Davis and McDonald found themselves together again when he was cast as Thelma’s husband, Darryl, in the 1991 classic Thelma & Louise.

The reunion could have been painfully awkward.

Instead, they met for lunch, talked about the past and embraced.

Then came one of the strangest twists of all.

For the movie, the former real-life couple actually posed for fake wedding photographs that would appear around their characters’ home.

McDonald has described working with Davis again as cathartic.

Davis has also acknowledged how much she hurt him. In her 2022 memoir, she described McDonald as a wonderful man and expressed gratitude that he eventually forgave her.

Davis and Goldblum went on to marry in 1987 before eventually divorcing.

McDonald found his own lasting love as well, marrying actress Lupe Gidley in 1992.

What began as one of the most painful chapters of his young life ultimately ended somewhere few Hollywood stories do:

With forgiveness — and a friendship that survived it all.