Julianna Margulies recalled how amid all the chaos in her teen life, she found a “safe haven.”

“When I was 15, I was an only child for the first time in my life cause my middle sister went to college and when I came home after a summer job to start my sophomore year in high school, my mother was living with a 21-year-old man in our house,” Margulies remembered the hurdles at a young age, which she tackled with the help of her older boyfriend.

Further recalling the time on the Tuesday, October 1, episode of Sony Music Entertainment’s Origins With Cush Jumbo podcast, the 58-year-old said that she realised that she was “on her own” at the time.

She decided to be “really studious” to “get the hell” away from her mother and her boyfriends, and get into college.

After moving from England to New Hampshire with her mom, she met Kewel McQuaid, who was four and a half years older than her, and she had a “massive crush” on him.

McQuaid was a senior and the assistant soccer coach when she started as a freshman. He was also a close friend of the head coach, Tony DiOrio, who knew Margulies and had once dated her mother. It was about time the actress formed a bond with her new interest.

“I was 15 and I didn’t have a car and so Kewel would drive me home and on those drives we would talk, and I fell madly in love with him,” The Morning Show actress confessed.

“He really anchored my life there because he was a good guy. He was crazy about me.”

Admitting that the relationship was “imbalanced”, Margulies reflected on the all the reasons she thought it was perfect for her.

“I mean, he had his own house, for crying out loud. And he was a mechanic, so nothing was a bigger turn on to me living with a woman who could never fix anything or do it,” Margulies said of McQuaid. 

“Here I was living with a man who built his own house. His car would break down and be like, ‘Hold on one minute, honey’ and he’d like tinker under the hood and fix it.”

“I really thank him because I’m sure for him he was a gorgeous guy who could have been dating anyone, but anyway, it got me through high school,” Margulies added talking to podcast host Cush Jumbo, and revealed that the relationship lasted for five years.

Reminiscing, the ER alum added, “I think literally he and his friends became my safe haven.”