Sleepless Facts About Meg Ryan, The Queen Of Rom-Coms
Meg Ryan has been a Hollywood fixture for the better part of four decades. Best known for rom-com romps such as Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, the actress’s off-screen life has been equally romance and comedy-filled. But the cutesy “girl-next-door” also has a less than family-friendly side that few know about.
1. Her Parents Taught Her Right
Margaret “Meg” Mary Emily Hyra was born in 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut. By all accounts, she was adorable from birth—even as a screaming baby. Her mother was a former actress turned English teacher and her father was a math teacher.
It’s too bad that neither was a marriage counselor—because they could have saved her from some future heartbreak.
2. She Was Always Cute
Even as a teenager, Meg Ryan was a regular heartbreaker. Her signature trout-pout was already working its magic. In her senior year of high school, for example, her classmates voted her homecoming queen and named her the “cutest” girl in school. She would ride on those signature girl-next-door looks all the way to the top of the rom-com world.
3. She Was Almost Never An Actress
Despite everyone thinking she was just the cat’s meow; Ryan wasn’t satisfied to rest on pretty. The soon-to-be A-lister attended the University of Connecticut and then New York University to study journalism.
Little did she know then that instead of covering the news, she would be making the news. Her life of rom-com roles and Hollywood hunks was closer than she knew.
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4. She Was An Instant Hit
Meg Ryan wasn’t going to let her good looks go to waste. In order to pay her way through university, she took up modeling and acting, landing small roles in commercials. It wasn’t long, however, before big-time television producers saw the potential in the cutesy girl. Ryan quickly found her way onto the set of As the World Turns—and it forced her to make a tough decision.
