My Brother ‘Hooked Up with’ a Bridesmaid While Mom Was Pregnant

Susan Sarandon is pulling back the veil on a family secret.

The actress and activist, 76, was a guest on a recent episode of Chris Sarandon‘s podcast Cooking by Heart, where she and her ex-husband, 81, reminisced about certain aspects of their courtship and marriage in the 1960s and ’70s.

While discussing their 1967 wedding, Susan recalled that her mother, Lenora Criscione Tomalin, was pregnant at the time — and said her brother, Phillip Tomalin Jr., “hooked up with one of the bridesmaids, so it was a very successful trip.”

According to the actress, her mother — who died in 2020 — “was just basically pregnant all the time,” and “had a number of miscarriages.”

As for Lenora’s pregnancy at the time of Susan’s wedding, “I think she was embarrassed,” said the Rocky Horror Picture Show star. “She was 44.”

According to Susan, who was 20 years old at the time, her mother never admitted to any embarrassment but instead told her daughter she “can’t get married.”

Her father disagreed and ended up attending the wedding — as did her mother, but she wore “a black raincoat” and sat “at the back of the church for, like, 10 minutes.”

“And none of my siblings could come except my brother that was right under me, who insisted upon coming,” Susan said.

During their chat, Susan and Chris — who met while she was in college — also spoke about their enduring appreciation for one another.

“I credit you with my foundation and my survival. I just thank you. That’s very kind,” she said. “One of the reasons I’m here is just to publicly say that.”

In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, Chris — who remarried twice, and will celebrate 30 years wed to Tony-winning actress and singer Joanna Gleason next year — had similarly kind words to say about Susan and their time together.

“We both have very strong feelings for that part of our lives and how those formative relationships are always important, and you can’t leave them behind totally,” said the Princess Bride actor. “You have to revisit them sometimes — if not in nostalgia, more in the sense of, yeah, there was love there, and it still exists on a different level. It’s not romantic love, but still there’s love there.”

Chris also praised Susan for being “an extraordinary human being” both before and after they met, adding, “Her evolution as both an actress and as a social activist has been so extraordinarily heartening in many ways to me, because obviously I knew her when, and to see that occur in such a healthy and humanitarian way, humanistic way, is very gratifying.”

“I knew she was a terrific person when we were together, and she’s still a terrific person. She’s a wonderful person,” he said.

Chris and Susan, who were married from 1967 to 1979, do not share any children, though they each have three from other relationships. Chris shares two daughters and one son with ex-wife Lisa Ann Cooper, and also has a stepson through Gleason, 73.

Susan is mom to actress Eva Amurri, 38, whom she shares with Italian director Franco Amurri, as well as her children with actor Tim Robbins: director Jack Henry Robbins, 34, and actor/musician Miles Robbins, 31.

In August 2021, the Oscar winner told PEOPLE that she was hopeful she’d soon find her forever adventure partner — but she was in no rush.

“I would like to have a travel companion, male, female — age doesn’t matter,” she said at the time, “but I would like to find someone who’s up for an adventure kind of attitude. And also, who cares about something passionately and who loves what they do, whatever that is.”

“In terms of a romantic relationship, I don’t know,” Susan also said. “That window may have closed, but I’m forever hopeful — but not desperate.”

Cooking by Heart is available wherever podcasts are streamed.