Meg Ryan Facts: Celebrities Who Started On Soaps

Meg Ryan was known as the queen of romantic comedies for many years, starring in iconic films such as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Kate & Leopold. Perhaps it was her time on As the World Turns as Betsy that prepared her.

The stunning actress has also appeared on other television shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Simpsons, and Charles in Charge. From where she was born and raised to having a song written about her, here are five fast facts about the film star.

Who Is Meg Ryan?

Margaret Mary Emily Hyra was born on November 19 in Fairfield, Connecticut, and also grew up there. She graduated from Bethel High School (and was prom queen!) and attended both the University of Connecticut and New York University, where she studied journalism.

Soap Beginnings
While she was a teen, she changed her name to Meg Ryan and began her acting career. In 1982, she was cast on  As the World Turns as Betsy Stewart Montgomery Andropoulos and won hearts in soapdom as the often-in-peril young ingenue.

Sweet Inspiration
Savage Garden, the band who wrote popular songs such as Truly Madly Deeply and I Knew I Loved You, wrote a song called All Around Me about Ryan. The song was written because Daniel Jones, the band’s composer, had a crush on her.

Famous Roles She Turned Down

Ryan has had many successful roles over the years, but there are a few big ones that she turned down. She was offered the lead role of Ghost, but it ended up going to Demi Moore. She also turned down the lead role in Pretty Woman, which went to Julia Roberts.

Getting Personal With Meg Ryan
Ryan was in a romance briefly with Anthony Edwards when they stared together as husband and wife in Top Gun with Tom Cruise. But she later worked with Dennis Quaid and the two married on February 14, 1991. They had one child together, a son named Jack Quaid, on April 24, 1992.

Ryan and Quaid separated in June 2000 and finalized their divorce in 2001. Ryan then adopted her daughter Daisy from China in 2006. She began dating John Mellencamp in 2010 and the couple got engaged in 2018.