Ed O'Neill Reveals 1989 'TV Guide' Cover Sparked His Longtime Feud With 'Married With Children' Costar Amanda Bearse

Ed O’Neill revealed the truth about he and Married… With Children costar Amanda Bearse's bitter feud.

While on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s On Me” podcast Tuesday, January 16, the Modern Family star, who played Al Bundy on the ‘80s series, divulged that the pair’s rift began when O’Neill didn’t stand up for Bearse after she was excluded from the cast’s 1989 TV Guide cover shoot.

"I did a thing on the show that involved Amanda Bearse that I regretted,” he said. “We didn’t get along, but we did for a long time. We were great friends. And I could guess, I don’t want to speak for her, but it started when we got the cover of TV Guide.”

The 77-year-old explained how Bearse, 65, — who played Marcy D’Arcy on Married… With Children — and other costar David Garrison were excluded from the magazine cover as they “were the neighbors” on the show.

“Because they had a rule: only so many could be on the cover,” O’Neill stated, before noting TV Guide had made some exceptions for other shows.

“Now they violated that for like two shows, I think it was MASH, and Dallas,” he continued. “That was an exception, they weren’t doing it for us.”

O’Neill shared Bearse wanted him to fight for her and Garrison to be included, but the Ohio native kept quiet in fear of losing the opportunity.

“We were lucky to get it. It was like the sixth year in or something, and we were thrilled to get the cover of TV Guide. It was big. And Amanda and David came out in unison from their dressing room,” he recounted. “We were on the soundstage, and she said, ‘We expect you to go to [co-creator] Ron Leavitt and tell him this doesn’t work. We’re all on the cover.'”

O’Neill also admitted he would have handled the situation differently today. In the end, O’Neill went on to pose for the TV Guide cover in with his co-stars Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate and David Faustino. Married … With Children went on to run for 11 seasons from 1987 to 1997.

As OK! previously reported, while appearing on Ferguson’s podcast, O’Neill revealed he almost started working for the mob because he was "broke" and at a standstill in his career.

"I had friends in organized crime," the actor confessed, mentioning one pal Jim. "Most of them, actually, were not mafia-made guys. There weren't that many made guys in Youngstown. But it was a lot of gangsters in Youngstown. All associated with these made guys. A lot of these guys were called associates."

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