Kaley Cuoco is one of the most successful actors on TV, thanks to her turn as Penny on The Big Bang Theory.
But before she became the person we all know today, Cuoco was, in her own words, a ‘sweet, wide-eyed 19-year-old’ who was just starting out on her career in acting.
This is how the story goes, in her conversation with Vogue for their series Sad Hot Girls, in which she reveals a bit more about her past dating history.
At this early stage in her life, Cuoco, now the crush of men around the world, met a guy on a night out who happened to be an actor.
Sounds great right? Well, not really. From the start, Kaley refuses to tell the audience who the actor is, because we would all know who he is.
Anyway, I’ll let Kaley tell the rest:
We start dating and we go on all these really adorable dates. We took my dog on walks and we would come back to my cute new little condo and we’d watch movies.
At 19 I’m sitting there, I’m looking at this guy going, ‘I’m going to marry him, this is the father of my children, I’m so in love’.
He was magical – everyone that met him loved him too and we looked cute together. Nothing could go wrong.
He wanted to take me on a really nice, romantic dinner date – kind of a surprise. I was so excited because we hadn’t really done this yet.
But this is where it all goes wrong for Kaley, despite a great meal and great conversation with the mystery beau.
The two flirtatiously banter over who is going to pay the bill, and he eventually pays, but not before something weird happens.
Kaley said:
He takes the bill out and he’s looking at it – like really seriously. Looking and looking up and his face is getting kind of squinty.
At first I thought maybe he couldn’t see or he needed glasses – I didn’t know him too well. And he kind of closes it back up.
He hasn’t put a card down – he hasn’t done anything yet – he’s just staring at the bill. What is wrong with this guy why is he taking so long?
But this guy is perfect, I’m gonna marry him so I need to be cool. So he proceeds to get into his pocket and take out his phone.
At this time, this was many years ago – the phone was like a printer.
The unknown actor then goes to get the calculator out on his phone and entering in some digits, at which point Kaley realises just what he’s doing.
She said:
He’s multiplying like an eight per cent tip.
Oh my god. He’s cheap… He’s cheap. He’s a bad tipper.
This rubbed Kaley up the wrong way because she grew up in a family who were known to be big tippers.
She knew she had to be with a guy in the future who was the same, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to introduce him to her family, but at the same time she knew she couldn’t break up with the guy because he was cheap.
But she resolved to fix the problem.
She said:
It started to get to the point where when he would pay – which was hilarious he wanted to pay for everything – I’d make up these lies…
I would run back inside, throwing cash to the server or whoever we owed money to.
I didn’t know how we would progress. This entire relationship was built on lies because I’m just lying to him…
People thought he was so generous, but I was going broke. I wasn’t on Big Bang at this point.
This carried on for some time, but she could sense the end was near. But he wanted to meet her family, which made her swoon a little.
They went for a family meal and all was well – this guy is suave, remember – and Kaley’s father gave her the seal of approval.
But then the bill came. At which point the actor tries to pay.
Kaley said:
I can’t let my dad – my dad is my idol – see my cheap hot boyfriend. My dad doesn’t care if he’s hot, he only cares if he tips.
I couldn’t ever admit to my dad that this was who this guy was. I did go back in and tip the server, I never went back into that restaurant again, and we split up a week later.
Absolutely savage.
