Christy Carlson Romano Thinks 'Cadet Kelly' Costar Shawn Ashmore 'Ghosted' Her Because She Wasn't 'Famous Enough'

Christy Carlson Romano spilled the tea about her former relationship with fellow actor Shawn Ashmore, revealing the two briefly dated while filming the hit Disney Channel movie Cadet Kelly.

“Shawn and I dated for the summer we filmed Cadet Kelly and for a few months after,” Romano recalled in her Instagram post. “I was eventually ghosted and heard ‘his team’ thought I wasn’t famous enough for us to keep dating. Hollywood is brutal for a young girl.”

The news came as Romano prepares to release her new book, Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Rise and Fall of a Child Star. She also shared that the entire truth will be exposed in the tome.

After sharing the story, fans sympathized with her, leaving comments on the post.

One person wrote, “If it makes you feel any better, I remember you and not him, at all.”

Another fan said, “I just like that 20 years later here you are and where’s Shawn?” as a third penned, “I’m so sorry. Hollywood can be great, or it can be harsh, unfortunately.”

This isn’t the first time Romano has shared her business with the world.

In a 2023 podcast episode, she shared that she got b----- implants as a teenager because she was dealing with body image issues while filming Cadet Kelly.

“At the time, obviously, I was coming of age in Hollywood.. And my mom and me looked at footage or some s---,” she recalled. “She was like, ‘Christy, if you want to get b----- implants, I just want to let you know that’s an option.’”

In the same interview, Romano expressed how she felt about her former Even Stevens costar Shia LaBeouf, admitting they had a “sibling rivalry.”

“I felt a little jilted from the whole situation,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Here he is. Making a big ol’ splash in Hollywood and here I am, I chose to go to college, and there’s consequences that come to that,’ but there was definitely an undercurrent of regret and comparison, sibling rivalry, if you will.”

Fans can expect her to go in depth about her and LaBeouf’s relationship in her new book. She recently posted a photo of him and his dad, Jeffery LaBeouf, on her Instagram page, with a memorable caption.

“Shia and I spent 3 years of our lives right next to each other in adjoining trailers, both of us enduring painful childhoods. If only we could have been there for each other, but we were each going through our own battles and could barely take care of ourselves," she penned. "It might anger some people, but I don’t care anymore. If my story can help just one person, it will have been worth it.”