Atleast the actress believes that her fling with Crowe turned her into public enemy number one and she struggled to cope with the backlash.
Meg Ryan says she was so upset by the way Americans turned on her during her romance with Russell Crowe that she took a break from Hollywood to recover. The Ryan-Crowe romance took off on the sets of the 2000 movie Proof of Life. Meg had long been considered America's sweetheart until the break-up of her marriage to Dennis Quaid and her fling with Crowe turned her into public enemy number one and she struggled to cope with the backlash.
Contactmusic.com quoted her as saying: "It's a very big surprise in life when you learn that not everyone is rooting for you. It's a very scary thing when you figure that out. "I never imagined that worrying about what other people think of me would be a big part of my day. But, when you get that much negativity thrown at you, you go, 'Whew, I've got to cope with that'. Nothing I heard in the press resembled the truth. What an insight for me. "I took time off. I wanted to get simple and quiet. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to travel."