From co-star to life partner: Justin Hartley’s wife, Sofia Pernas, has starred with him not once, not twice but three times — including playing his love interest in his newest project, Tracker. Hartley —who previously starred as Kevin Pearson on NBC’s This Is Us — has been married three times. He married his first wife and Passions co-star Lindsay Korman, from 2004 to 2012. He married his second wife Chrishell Stause, whom he starred with on The Young and the Restless, from 2017 to 2019. He married his third and current wife, Sofia Pernas, whom he also starred with on The Young and the Restless, in 2021.
In addition to The Young and the Restless, Pernas is set to appear with Hartley on CBS’ Tracker, in which Hartley plays the lead role of Colter Shaw. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in February 2024, Hartley revealed that Pernas plays a woman who “comes up from [his character’s] past.” “She’s a love interest from his past,” he said. “They worked together as well and she’s got a similar set of skills and a similar lifestyle, although hers is more tech.” He continued, “She did him dirty in the past, so they separated.”
Hartley, who is also an executive producer on Tracker, also joked to Entertainment Tonight about how he added more PDA scenes between his and Pernas’ character. “I just built a few in the weren’t in the script,” he said. “It’s wonderful, and it’s freeing, and it’s just a great place to be.”
Pernas will make her Tracker debut as Billie Matalon in the upcoming March 24 episode. Per the episode’s official logline, Colter reluctantly teams up with his nemesis, fellow reward seeker Billie Matalon, to track down a missing racehorse. Ahead of the episode, Pernas spoke to TV Insider about what it’s like to work with her husband. “It’s always cliché to say that your partner is your best friend, but he really is. So going to work with your best friend is about all it’s chalked up to be,” she told the outlet. “It’s awesome. And he’s so prepared as an actor, and he knows all of his lines, and he really, really, really takes all of this so seriously because he’s so committed to it. So it’s nice to work with someone who does that and it feels like you can play.”
Meet Justin Hartley’s wife and ex-wives
Learn more about Justin Hartley’s wife and past relationships ahead.
Sofia Pernas (2020 – Present). Justin Hartley and his wife, Sofia Pernas, started dating in 2020, about five years after they starred together on The Young and the Restless in 2015. Hartley played Adam Newman on the soap from 2014 to 2016, while Pernas played Marisa Sierras from 2015 to 2017. Hartley and Pernas secretly married in May 2021. People confirmed their marriage after they made their red carpet debut at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, where they were both seen wearing rings on their wedding fingers.
Hartley’s ex-wife, Chrishell Stause, who also starred on The Young and the Restless in 2016, reacted to Hartley and Pernas dating less than a year after their divorce in an interview with People in 2020.“I feel like anybody would be heartbroken to see how quickly or easily you are replaced; of course that’s going to sting,” Stause said of the ″painful” moment she learned Hartley was seeing someone else.
In an interview with Haute Living in December 2021, Hartley opened up about how he and Pernas started dating. “You meet in different capacities. We didn’t work together that closely, and we didn’t work together that long. I knew that she was very kind and very nice. I liked being around her. But I was in a different place in my life. I wasn’t available,” he said. “Timing has a lot to do with that. I’m very lucky to not only have found ‘The One,’ but I found her when she was available and the timing was right.”
He continued, “It’s incredible when you’re not forcing things. It doesn’t have to be that hard. You just meet the right person and you just go, ‘Oh, this is amazing. It’s just so wonderful!’ You’re so attracted and so attached to this person. You just love this person so much. … When I remet her, I just knew. It’s so interesting about the human heart and human mind. It’s not a codependency — I’m just at peace with myself. I feel loved and I feel appreciated. I know she feels the same way.”
In October 2022, Hartley and Pernas guest-starred together on NBC’s Quantum Leap, in which she played Tammy Jean Jessup / Carla and he played a bounty hunter nmed Jake. “It was the absolute best,” Hartley told E! News at the time. “I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed as much on a set. We had such a good time. … Sofia’s got a really great sense of humor.”
He continued, “There were a couple of moments where she took some liberties, she did a little ad-libbing, which allowed me to do a little ad-libbing. And the characters became more and more annoyed with each other — specifically, Jake becoming annoyed with her, not really the other way around — and we had a lot of fun with that.”
Chrishell Stause (2013 – 2020).
Justin Hartley and his ex-wife, Chrishell Stause, started dating in October 2013 after they were introduced to each other by one of Stause’s Days of Our Lives co-stars. (Stause starredd as Jordan Ridgeway on Days of Our Lives on and off from 2013 to 2023.) “The next day, I texted my friend: ‘I found him,’” Stause told People in 2017. Hartley added, “I drove her home and called the next day. We haven’t been apart since. I knew right away [and] was like, ‘Oh boy, here we go.’”
They got engaged in July 2016 after almost three years of dating. “Such a happy time. Thanks for all the well wishes guys! So sweet,” Stause tweeted at the time. That same year, Hartley and Stause also starred together on The Young and the Restless. Stause played Bethany Bryant on the soaps in a recurring role in 2016, while Hartley starred as Adam Newman from 2014 to 2016.
Hartley and Stause married in October 2017, about a year after their engagement. Hartley’s daughter, Isabella, who was 13 at the time, served as both the flower girl and ringbearer for the ceremony. “The whole wedding was really centered around how Bella and Chrishell are the two women in Justin’s life. [They] were saying Chrishell was the last puzzle piece for their family to be complete. It was awesome to see how the three of them are such a tight-knit unit,” a wedding guest told People at the time.
Hartley also told People at the time about his excitement for his future with Stause. “At the risk of sounding cheesy, I look forward to sharing life experiences and growing old together,” he said. “Someday, we can talk about all the things we did together 30 years ago!”
In November 2019, Hartley filed for divorce from Stause after two years of marriage. He cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for their split and listed their date of separation as July 8, 2019. “In many ways, they’re somewhat fundamentally incompatible,” a source told People at the time. “Chrishell is really ready to just settle down and be a wife and stay-at-home mom and was hoping to start a family relatively soon. Justin wants that, but also doesn’t think it has to happen in the near future and is at a point in his career where he wants to really be able to explore all the options that are coming his way.”
In Season 3 of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, which Stause was a cast member on, Stause claimed she learned of Hartley’s divorce filing when he texted her about it. “I’m just kind of in shock with it all. I’m trying to keep it together, but it’s just a lot all at once ’cause everybody in the whole world knows, like at the same time that I knew. Have you ever been knocked over by a wave and you don’t know which way to swim to get up?” she said. She continued in a confessional interview, “I don’t think anyone ever gets married thinking that they’ll get a divorce. I’m definitely a hopeless romantic, and I feel stupid even saying that out loud.”
