Sam Neill, Heather Mitchell confront one another over their past break-up

It’s been decades since they dated – and now, Sam Neill and Heather Mitchell have finally discussed the reason for their split.

It’s been decades since they briefly dated, and now, Jurassic Park star Sam Neill and Australian actress Heather Mitchell have openly discussed why they didn’t work out.

Interviewing one another for the latest issue of Stellar, Neill, 76, asks Mitchell, 66, if she felt they were, at one point, “boyfriend and girlfriend?”

The duo met in 1985, and have maintained a friendship for 40 years. Little is known about their romantic relationship.

Despite their continued contact over the years, it seems both are still confused about why they split all those years ago.

“Here’s a more important question: why did we break up?” Neill asked Mitchell, saying the duo had “never discussed it” before.

Heather Mitchell and Sam Neill briefly dated decades ago.

“Well, I’ve got my version, and you have yours,” Mitchell responded, adding, “I’ve always wanted to [discuss it]. I think I did something that upset you. I can’t remember what it was.”

Neill, however, remembered things “differently”.

“We were both invited to a party and you were upset with me for some reason,” the actor said.

“So I turn up thrilled to see you – and you wouldn’t talk to me. You wouldn’t even look at me.”

Sam Neill on the cover of this weekend’s Stellar magazine. Picture: Georges Antoni/Stellar

Mitchell, for her part, felt the same way, believing Neill was upset with her.

“I thought you were mad with me!” she said.

“We might still be together if we had talked about this earlier.”

Heather Mitchell has been happily married for over 30 years. Picture: Richard Walker

Neill is understood to be single. Picture: Channel 7

Mitchell has been married to cinematographer Martin McGrath for more than 30 years, with the couple sharing two adult children.

Meanwhile, Neill shares a son with actress Lisa Harrow, whom he met in 1980.

He later married make-up artist Noriko Watanabe in 1989, with the couple welcoming a daughter. Neill also adopted Watanabe’s daughter from her first marriage, before the couple separated in 2017.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in March last year, Neill said he was a “solitary single man.”

Read the full interview in this week’s Stellar, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).

Originally published as Sam Neill, Heather Mitchell confront one another over their past break-up