“Reacher” star Alan Ritchson was refreshingly candid when speaking about his former classmate, Matt Gaetz, whose political career was affected when news broke that he allegedly participated in sex trafficking and possibly had an inappropriate encounter with a minor.
During a wide-ranging GQ interview in February 2025, Ritchson opened up about the time they spent in school together and the tense relationship they shared. “That motherf**ker. We are adversaries,” the actor said during the interview. Unfortunately, Ritchson didn’t delve into the source of conflict with the former representative.
“It’s shocking to me that the panhandle of Florida continues to vote for somebody — knowing everything we know about him and the promises that he’s made behind closed doors about pardoning certain criminals — he’s just not a good dude!” Ritchson’s disdain for Gaetz is so strong that he briefly considered becoming a celebrity turned politician. “There’s part of me that wants to get into politics to outdo somebody like him for good, and there’s part of me that’s like, I’m not duplicitous enough to succeed in politics,” he admitted. “There are certain people that do a good job of staying true to who they are, but they’re ineffective. I think Bernie Sanders is a hero. But it’s like, what has he accomplished.”
Matt Gaetz says Alan Ritchson’s mother loved him
Alan Ritchson isn’t the only celeb or politician who hates Matt Gaetz, but he’s one of the only few who’s prompted the disgraced politician to clap back on social media. Shortly after Ritchson’s interview, Gaetz took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to issue a response to his former classmate. “Hollywood apparently changes people!” tweeted Gaetz in late February. “Alan was a year behind me in high school and we were both on the Speech and Debate Team.” He also disagreed that he and Ritchson were adversaries. “We were not ‘adversaries’ as I won debate championships and Alan did more acting stuff. As I recall, his older brother Eric won more often than Alan did,” he continued.
The politician also claimed that Ritchson was much fonder of him during their high school years than he claimed. While Ritchson claimed they were at odds, Gaetz remembers a different relationship. “He was always very nice to me (and everyone) and his mother, the computer lab monitor, loved me,” he continued. Finally, he claimed that Ritchson’s mother invited him to one of their family parties. “At her invitation, I even went to his dad’s retirement party from the Air Force,” he said. “It was held at a karaoke bar called ‘lewbos’ in Niceville where his dad sang ‘sittin on the dock of the bay.’ I sang ‘centerfold.'”
Interestingly, Gaetz received quite a bit of support from users on X, including one who tweeted: “I loved ‘Reacher’ but as soon as this guy got into politics it went on my no-go list. Why can’t actors just act? Why bend the knee and alienate half your market?”
