Justin Hartley Suggests Some People ‘Can't Handle' His Relationship With Wife Sofia Pernas
Justin Hartley is not willing to let anyone come between him and his wife, Sofia Pernas.
The Tracker star, 49, opened up about his marriage to the actress, 36, during the Tuesday, May 5, episode of the "I've Never Said This Before With Tommy DiDario" podcast.
"People write songs about [this kind of love], people talk about it, and I think you want to believe that everyone has that in their life, that everyone gets to a point where they meet their soulmate or whatever you want to call it," he said. "It's unfortunate that I think a lot of people don't, and that's sad."
He added, "When you do have it, you got to just hold on to it. It's so special and fragile, in some ways, and rare, unfortunately. She's everything, she's fantastic."
Hartley then shared some advice he once received from his stepfather about recognizing the impact outside voices can have on a relationship.
"[My stepdad] said to me a long, long time ago, ‘You got to take care of your relationship and be very protective of who you surround yourself with and what relationships you surround yourself with,'" he recalled. "When you find the person [for you], there will be people in your life that you think are your friends and they simply cannot handle your relationship. They can't handle it."
While Hartley doesn't think naysayers are necessarily "trying to sabotage" couples like himself and Pernas, he pointed out the potential consequences.
"They're not bad people," he explained. "They just can't handle it. And you don't need to be hearing [the negative comments]. I'm not saying that you should be surrounded by sycophants and that's healthy. But there's certainly a difference between someone rooting for your love and rooting for your relationship and rooting for you and someone that's just kind of in a way jealous of what you have."
Hartley and Pernas met while starring together on The Young and the Restless in 2015 and remained friends after both exiting the CBS soap opera. The pair were romantically linked in 2020 and quietly tied the knot the following year.
Prior to his relationship with Pernas, Hartley was married to Lindsay Korman from 2004 to 2012 and Chrishell Stause from 2017 to 2021. He and Korman share daughter Isabella, 21.
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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 3:46 PM.