Italy is for lovers! Justin Hartley and his wife, Sofia Pernas, packed on the PDA while walking the red carpet at an Italian awards ceremony.
The This Is Us star, 45, was supported by the former soap star, 32, at the 2022 Filming Italy awards ceremony in Sardinia on Saturday, June 11, where he was being honored for his work on the hit family drama. Other honorees included James Franco, Regina King and Naomie Harris. The Passions alum, wearing a blue suit, also showed some rare PDA with his spouse, stopping on the red carpet to cradle the actress’ face and kiss her in front of all the cameras.
Ahead of the big night, Hartley and Pernas attended the Filming Italy Festival in Cagliari on Thursday, June 9, where they walked arm in arm on the red carpet.
Us Weekly confirmed in May 2020 that the duo were dating, six months after he filed for divorce from Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause following two years of marriage. “I’m a happy guy. I sleep like a baby. I don’t have anything on my mind,” Hartley told Entertainment Tonight in July 2020. “I treat people the way I want to be treated and I have lovely friends who love me and I love them.”
He continued: “And I’ve got this wonderful daughter, and I’ve got a great family, and I am a very, very lucky, lucky individual.”
Hartley, who shares daughter Isabella with ex-wife Lindsay Hartley, revealed that he reconnected with Pernas while he was still married to Stause. “We didn’t work together [on the Young and the Restless] that closely, and we didn’t work together that long. … I liked being around her,” he told Haute Living of being reintroduced to his now-wife, four years after they both starred on the soap opera in 2015. “But I was in a different place in my life. I wasn’t available. Timing has a lot to do with that. I’m very lucky to not only have found ‘The One,’ but I found her when she was available and the timing was right.”
The Smallville alum also gushed about his effortless relationship with Pernas. “It’s incredible when you’re not forcing things. It doesn’t have to be that hard,” he told Haute Living. “You just meet the right person and you just go, ‘Oh, this is amazing. It’s just so wonderful!’ You’re so attracted and so attached to this person. You just love this person so much.”
Hartley added: “When I remet her, I just knew. It’s so interesting about the human heart and human mind. It’s not a codependency — I’m just at peace with myself. I feel loved and I feel appreciated. I know she feels the same way.”
Pernas, for her part, is also enjoying married life with her husband. “We fell in love [during the pandemic] and we now get to do all the fun stuff that couples do. So we’re just enjoying that,” Pernas told HollywoodLife in October 2021. “It‘s hilarious. Technically our first date was a year after we were together because that was when the world opened up.”