Jerry O'connell says bedroom ultimatum and $800 hypnosis ended his smoking habit

jerry o'connell says a blunt warning from his wife, Rebecca Romijn, followed by an $800 hypnosis session finally broke a decades-long nicotine addiction and left him cigarette-free for 14 years.

Jerry O'Connell turned to hypnosis after Rebecca Romijn's ultimatum

The 52-year-old actor described the turning point on Sophia Bush's Work In Progress podcast, saying his wife told him she "would not touch me if I smoked. " He recalled that what began as a threat quickly became reality: "After, like, two weeks, there was no physical contact, " and by three weeks he knew he had to stop. He tried to quit on his own and failed, then sought outside help.

How the hypnosis session played out

O'Connell said he tracked down a woman who had quit smoking and took the hypnotist's number. He brought a photo of his wife and his 17-year-old twin daughters, Dolly and Charlie, to the session. The hypnotist put headphones on him, played spa music and counted down: "Ten, nine, eight …" He fell asleep and later paid $800 in cash for the visit.

At first he thought the session was a waste. "When I woke up, I had to pay her cash. This was 13, coming up on 14 years ago, I had to pay her $800 cash, " he said. Back at his car with a pack of Marlboro Mediums, he put a cigarette in his mouth and tried to light it — but "couldn't light it. " That moment marked the end of his smoking habit, he said.

What changed and what stayed the same

jerry o'connell described years of struggling with nicotine before the hypnosis: "I struggled with nicotine for decades, struggled with it. Had to get hypnotized. I haven't had a ciggy in like fourteen years. " He also said he has not been hypnotized for anything else since that session.

The episode tied the personal decision to a simple domestic boundary from his marriage. O'Connell and Romijn met in the mid-2000s; they married in July 2008 and are parents to twin daughters. He framed the ultimatum and the subsequent hypnosis as the sequence that finally worked where other attempts had not.

On the podcast he described falling asleep during the hypnotist's countdown and initially dismissing the experience as "baloney, " only to discover the change once he tried to smoke afterward and couldn't. He said the session came after repeated failed attempts to quit on his own.

O'Connell's account places the decisive moment roughly in the early 2010s and gives two concrete anchors: the $800 payment for the hypnotist and a cigarette-free stretch of 14 years. He repeatedly referenced his family photos in the session and the physical withdrawal of affection as the immediate motivation to act.

He remains cigarette-free, saying the hypnosis worked where prior efforts had not, and that he has not returned to hypnotherapy for other issues. The story is part of his recent conversation on Sophia Bush's Work In Progress podcast, where he laid out both the ultimatum and the unexpected effectiveness of the $800 session.