Harry Connick Jr recalls Frank Sinatra acting 'completely inappropriate' with wife Jill Goodacre

Harry Connick Jr doesn’t have the best memory of Frank Sinatra.

In an interview on This Morning, the singer recalled meeting the iconic Rat Packer in the early 90s and said it didn’t go well, for multiple reasons. The first was because Connick choked during his performance in front of Ol’ Blue Eyes. The second was because when Connick apologised for the flub, Sinatra totally ignored him and was “completely inappropriate” with Connick’s then-girlfriend and now-wife, model Jill Goodacre.

Connick recalled the “unpleasant experience”, saying that “as much as I wanted to sing for him and everyone else” at the event”, for some reason “I was really nervous” and “blanked out” on stage. So he saw Sinatra in the lift after and went to apologise.

With the Victoria’s Secret beauty by his side, Connick recalled telling Sinatra, “I’m sorry. I’m much better than what you saw.” The My Way singer responded by ignoring him and honing in on Goodacre.

FILE- In this 1990 file photo, Frank Sinatra, is shown in New York's Radio City Music Hall. (AP Photo/Mario Suriani, file)
FILE- In this 1990 file photo, Frank Sinatra, is shown in New York's Radio City Music Hall. (AP Photo/Mario Suriani, file)

“He looked at [her] and kind of placed her face in his hands and said, ‘You’re beautiful,’ and he kissed her right on the mouth, walked out of the elevator and that was the end of that.”

Read more: Shirley MacLaine defends Frank Sinatra

When host Phillip Schofield said that what Sinatra – who died in 1998 – did would be “unacceptable” in the #MeToo and Time’s Up era, Connick said, “It was probably unacceptable then.”

He went on to say, “Obviously it’s completely inappropriate.”

Harry Connick Jr. and Jill Goodacre during Gala Honoring Tommy Mottola - September 12, 1990 at Columbia Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Harry Connick Jr. and Jill Goodacre at an event around that time — 1990. (Photo: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

Connick said that Goodacre has brought up the run-in as a way to tease her husband through the years.

“I think my affection for” Sinatra as an iconic singer made the snub of Connick “hilarious for her,” he said.

Connick and Goodacre received a lot of buzz when they first started dating.

They married in 1994 and had three daughters. Despite the ups and downs of life – including her private battle with breast cancer – they’re as close as ever.

In 2015 he told People magazine: "When I first met [Jill], her physical beautiful was so captivating that it kind of freaked me out.” And he was still smitten. “She’s a mystery to me,” he said, even after all their years together. “I genuinely want to know what she thinks. I want to know what she’s doing and there’s a lot about her that I still don’t know. I married up!”