Author: rznews77

Questions surrounding Kristi Noem’s personal life have been circulating for months, but this latest appearance has fueled another wave of speculation. The footage has also prompted plenty of reactions online, where viewers have been debating exactly what the public outing means.

According to a video shared by TMZ, Kristi was seen enjoying what appeared to be a relaxed afternoon in Minnesota with an unidentified man.

A Casual Day Out Quickly Drew Attention

The pair were spotted biking together before spending time at what appeared to be an outdoor restaurant, looking comfortable in each other’s company. As the clip spread online, viewers immediately began wondering who the man beside Kristi was and what their appearance together might mean.

The mystery did not last long. According to reporting by the New York Post, the man accompanying Kristi was a former campaign manager for Donald Trump. The outlet reported that the two were seen biking and spending time together along the shores of Lake Minnetonka before settling at an outdoor table at a restaurant in Wayzata, an affluent Minneapolis suburb.

Wayzata, situated along Lake Minnetonka, is known for its waterfront scenery, upscale restaurants, boutiques, and popular biking and walking trails.

The publication reported that Kristi wore a hat pulled low over her eyes while the mystery man wore sunglasses. It also said the pair were casually dressed and that, at one point, Kristi appeared to be looking at something on his phone.

According to the New York Post, multiple sources told the outlet they believe Kristi and the mystery man, Corey Lewandowski, remain romantically involved. The publication also reported that Corey did not respond to its request for comment.

The sighting has attracted even more attention because it follows years of speculation about Kristi and Corey. According to an earlier Daily Mail report, a woman who claimed she had spoken with Kristi’s husband about rumors involving Corey alleged that Bryon responded, “I know. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

The report also said Corey continued appearing alongside Kristi during official travel, including trips to Guyana, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Against that backdrop, it did not take long for the latest video to spark fresh debate online.

The Video Quickly Sparked Debate

The footage generated a wide range of reactions across social media, with many viewers focusing on the pair’s relationship. One commenter asked, “Are they just friends?” Another person wrote, “They are such big cheaters.”

Meanwhile, someone else offered support for the former DHS secretary, writing, “I love Kristi. Corey is a lucky man.”

The public appearance comes just days after fresh reports about Kristi’s marriage to her husband of more than three decades, Bryon Noem. According to a previous Daily Mail report, Kristi has reportedly told family members that she has begun divorce proceedings following more than 30 years of marriage. Neither Kristi nor Bryon has publicly confirmed that divorce proceedings have been filed.

The outlet also reported that Bryon had recently moved out of the couple’s home in Castlewood, South Dakota. The latest claims about the marriage came from Kristi’s mother, Corinne Arnold, who spoke to the Daily Mail about the family’s recent conversations.

Her Mother Shared What She Says Kristi Told Her

According to Corinne, the situation had been painful but not entirely surprising. “It has been difficult, but we knew this was coming, that they were going to get divorced,” Corinne said.

She also recalled the last time she saw Kristi and Bryon together, at a family gathering in late spring to celebrate one of her grandchildren’s birthdays.

One Family Gathering Left a Lasting Impression

Corinne described the birthday party as a gathering where the entire family was present. “This was a big party where the whole family was there, Kristi and Bryon, all my kids, all my grandkids,” she recalled.

Despite everything that had reportedly unfolded in the months before, she said Bryon appeared affectionate with the children. “Bryon was holding and hugging the kids,” she said. “It seemed like the old Bryon.”

She added, “He was very nice. I hugged him, told him I loved him, and he said the same.” At that point, however, one question had been weighing on her mind.

During the family gathering, Corinne said she finally decided to ask her daughter directly about the future of her marriage. According to her, Kristi had generally kept her feelings to herself. “She doesn’t tell me what she thinks,” Corinne said.

But she said she eventually asked the question that had been lingering. “Finally, I said: ‘What’s the deal? Are you going to get together again?'”

Corinne then recounted Kristi’s alleged response. “And she said: ‘No. No. We’re going to get a divorce.'”

She said she immediately followed up with another question. “And I said: ‘Who is your lawyer?’ And she said it was somebody from Sioux Falls.”

The Alleged Reason Behind Kristi and Bryon’s Split

The reported divorce comes months after the Daily Mail published another claim that Bryon had been participating online in the “bimbofication” fetish community. According to the outlet, Bryon allegedly shared compromising images of himself wearing women’s clothing stuffed with balloons to imitate large breasts while interacting with online fetish models.

The report also said national security experts consulted by the publication believed the alleged activity could have left Kristi — who has often been nicknamed “ICE Barbie” — potentially vulnerable to blackmail because of her high-profile government role.

Corinne told the publication that the controversy surrounding Bryon was the final blow to the couple’s 34-year marriage, saying the scandal ultimately became too much for the relationship to withstand.

Remember that on March 31, 2026, the claim detailed Bryon’s secret life as a cross-dresser. The outlet alleged that he exchanged photos with online fetish models showing himself in tight-fitting clothes, pink hotpants, and artificial breasts.

Furthermore, he supposedly praised women in the so-called “bimbofication” scene, talked openly about his attraction to “huge, huge ridiculous boobs,” and sent at least $25,000 through Cash App and PayPal over roughly 14 months.

That alone would have been explosive, but the stakes were even higher because his wife had recently been serving at the top of the federal government.

Experts cited in the report warned that this kind of concealed behavior could create a blackmail risk. One former CIA officer bluntly argued that if journalists could uncover it, hostile intelligence services likely could too.

During a phone call with the publication, Bryon didn’t deny that he sent photos or engaged in explicit chats. He did, however, dispute the claim that his behavior jeopardized national security.

Meanwhile, Kristi’s spokesperson said the news devastated her and that the situation completely caught the family off guard.

This incident comes in complete contrast to the long history and previously good image the couple had publicly. Here are several facts about them that most people might not know.

The Marriage Started Long Before Politics

Kristi and Bryon’s story began years before her political career and national headlines. They met in high school in Castlewood, began dating while she was a junior and pageant queen, while he was already attending college.

They got engaged on the Fourth of July in 1991. He proposed during the fireworks on his grandfather’s boat in Lake Kampeska. They finally got married in May 1992.

On the about page of their company, Noem Insurance, Bryon describes growing up on a farm in Hamlin County between Bryant and Lake Norden, graduating from Hamlin High School in 1988, and from Northern State University in 1993.

He also says he worked for his father through college, then spent 10 years working on Kristi’s family farm before moving into the insurance business in 2003.

He later bought that insurance agency in 2010 and continued running it while the couple raised their three children, Kassidy, Kennedy, and Booker Noem. In public, it all seemed like a deeply traditional life built on small-town roots, hard work, and family loyalty.

What’s more, Bryon was not a side character in Kristi’s life. He was repeatedly described as one of its moral anchors.

Faith Was Not Just Part of the Brand

In a 2018 Father’s Day Facebook post, Kristi painted her husband as the steady force behind their family and made religion central to that image.

She wrote, “When Bryon married me, he thought I’d be a farmer the rest of my life. God had different plans for us.” Then she added that he was the family’s support, a funny presence and a serious motivator, and the father who taught their children to be tough, self-sufficient, and to “love the Lord.”

Therefore, Bryon was the man helping shape the family’s spiritual life while Kristi’s career expanded far beyond the farm.

And that is where the contradiction starts feeling especially difficult to look away from. The person described as guiding his children toward faith is now tied to allegations of a hidden taboo world that could not be further from the image his family projected.

A Tragedy Reshaped Their Future

Long before the recent scandal, one of the most important turns in their marriage came after a family loss. Kristi never finished college when she was younger because she left school at 22 after her father was killed in a farming accident.

In a CBS News profile from 2012, she described how devastating that moment was. “It turned our whole lives upside down. He was the guy who could do anything,” she said. “I remember going to bed that night thinking, ‘I have no idea what tomorrow looks like because he’s not here.'”

That loss pulled her back into family responsibilities and changed the path she had expected to follow. It also meant Bryon’s role in the years after was not just as a husband in the background, but as someone helping hold together a family navigating considerable challenges.

So when Kristi later praised him as the one who steadied the household, there was real history behind it. And she complimented him again the following year, not just for his faith but also for being a good dad.

Kristi Praised Him in Almost Sacred Terms

In a 2019 column titled “Husband, Father, Servant,” the former Department of Homeland Security Secretary wrote about Bryon in the best way a wife can.

“I had a sneaking suspicion he would be a great dad because he has a wonderful father who is a great role model,” she explained, then added:

“Bryon loves the Lord and understands the responsibility that God gives to men to lead their families. As the years went by and the kids were born, his actions revealed to me how he viewed fatherhood. He served.”

She further described him as the parent who handled chores while she was away, cared for the children through illnesses, prayed over their son Booker, recorded family memories on video, and supported their daughter Kassidy as she got married.

It was an intensely personal and deeply religious portrait of the man by her side. And she wasn’t the only one who saw him that way.

Relatives Say He Had a Calling

In a March 6 report from the New York Post, members of Bryon’s extended family claimed he had long viewed staying by Kristi Noem‘s side as a religious obligation.

One relative said, “He said he decided about 20 years ago that it was his calling from God to support her in whatever she decided to do.”

The couple also raised their children in an ultra-strict church community, which makes sense because of how he viewed himself.

Unfortunately, private behavior, public loyalty, and strict religious values are now sitting in the same story, and none of them fit together neatly.

Halle Berry just turned 60, but if her birthday vacation photos are anything to go by, she is entering the milestone with absolutely no intention of slowing down, and the story of how she got here is even wilder than some fans may remember.

From entering her first beauty pageant in her prom dress to making Oscar history, surviving three marriages and finding love again, keep scrolling because Berry’s life really has had more twists than a movie script.

60 Here She Comes, and Halle Berry Is Celebrating Her Way

Before officially turning 60 on August 14, 2026, Berry gave followers a preview of her birthday mood from a dreamy tropical getaway. On August 12, the actress shared a collection of vacation photos and boldly declared, “60 here I come…”

In the photos, Berry wore a plunging black halter-style dress while surrounded by lush greenery, looking relaxed, sun-kissed, and very much ready to welcome a new decade.

Then came another mood entirely. On August 13, one day before the big birthday, Berry posted another vacation carousel with the very Berry-esque declaration, “Today….don’t give a [expletive]!”

This time, she lounged in a dramatic red-and-black lace robe, snacked in the sunshine, and stretched out with a drink in hand. At 59 going on 60, Berry looked like somebody who had earned the right to spend at least one day doing precisely what she pleased.

Berry also shared a glimpse of her birthday dessert on social media. The chocolate cake was decorated with strawberries and the words “Happy Birthday,” while a message at the bottom of the Story read, “Let’s Go. 60!”

Fans Could Not Stop Talking About How She Looks

Berry’s birthday photos also sparked the kind of comments most people would be thrilled to receive at any age, let alone on the doorstep of 60. One admirer focused on a perhaps unexpected feature, writing underneath one of Berry’s posts, “Your neck is fabulous honey “keke palmers voice [sic].”

Another fan wanted Berry to spill the beauty secrets altogether: “Can you tell me what u use on your face and neck u [sic] look amazing.”

And while Berry’s appearance understandably gets plenty of attention, her journey to 60 is about much more than looking incredible in vacation attire.

Because long before the Academy Awards, the superhero movies and the red carpets, Berry was a teenager in a prom dress who did not even intend to become a beauty queen.

The Beauty Queen Who Never Planned to Be One

Berry’s pageant origin story almost sounds made up. During a February 2026 appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” she explained that she never dreamed of becoming a pageant queen in the first place.

According to Berry, her boyfriend at the time was the one with the ambition. ‘I didn’t really aspire to be a beauty pageant queen,” she recalled, explaining that he wanted a girlfriend who was one. Without her knowing, he took her high school photograph and entered it in the Miss Teen Ohio competition.

Then a letter arrived telling her she was a finalist. Berry said she showed up wearing her prom dress, with very little emotional investment in the whole thing. And then? “I ended up winning the damn thing,” she told Norton.

That accidental victory kept snowballing. Berry said she went on to further competitions, winning again and again until she eventually reached Miss USA. She also joked that she was “in it for the loot” once the prizes started piling up, and the loot was not exactly small.

Berry recalled winning a white Chrysler LeBaron convertible, a fur coat, approximately $10,000, jewelry, diamonds, clothes, and a wardrobe. Not bad for something she did not even sign herself up for.

The official Miss Teen All American history lists Berry as Miss Teen All American 1985 — an extraordinary early chapter for someone who would later become an Academy Award winner.

From Pageants to Hollywood, and a Breakthrough That Was Anything but Glamorous

According to Berry’s IMDb biography, she was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Oakwood, Ohio. After pageants led to modeling, television followed. Berry landed a role in the 1989 series “Living Dolls,” but the big-screen breakthrough came with Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever” in 1991, playing a crack addict — about as far removed from polished pageant glamour as possible.

Her career soon accelerated. She played Eddie Murphy’s love interest in “Boomerang” in 1992, appeared as Sharon Stone in “The Flintstones” in 1994, and starred opposite Jessica Lange in “Losing Isaiah” the following year.

Then came even more critical recognition. Berry appeared in “Bulworth” in 1998 before portraying Dorothy Dandridge in the television film commonly known as “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” a performance that earned her a Golden Globe.

By 2000, she had joined the blockbuster world as Storm in “X-Men.” Then came the role that changed everything.

She Was Considered ‘Too Beautiful’ for the Role… Then She Won the Oscar

There is a particularly satisfying irony surrounding Berry’s casting in “Monster’s Ball.” Producer Lee Daniels initially had reservations about putting her in the female lead because he considered Berry too beautiful for the part, according to Variety.

That concern did not age well. Berry’s performance as Leticia Musgrove earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first Black woman to win the Oscar in that category.

It is a career arc that feels almost impossibly cinematic: prom dress, crown, modeling, acting rejection, superhero fame — then Oscar history. But while Berry was reaching extraordinary highs professionally, her romantic life was often far less simple.

Three Marriages, Public Heartache and One Ex’s Comments That Raised Eyebrows

Berry has been married three times. Her first husband was former Professional Baseball Player David Justice, whom she married in 1993. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1997. Nearly three decades later, Justice revisited their relationship during a 2025 appearance on the “All the Smoke” podcast, and some of his comments quickly became eyebrow-raising.

Speaking about his mindset as a young husband, he said, “I’m looking at my mom, and I’m a Midwest guy, so in my mind I’m thinking a wife at that time should cook, clean—traditional, you know?”

Justice went further when discussing whether he could envision starting a family with Berry: “At that time, as a young guy, she don’t cook, don’t clean, don’t really seem, like, motherly. And then we started having issues.“

He also claimed Berry proposed after they had known each other for five months, adding that he felt he could not say no at the time. Looking back, however, Justice said he believed their marriage might have survived had he understood therapy and relationships better.

Whether or not everyone agrees with his assessment, Berry’s life after that marriage certainly proved that “motherly” was not something an ex-husband got to define for her.

Then, in 2001, Berry married Singer Eric Benét. Their relationship later imploded amid infidelity. Benét admitted to betrayals during the marriage and entered a 35-day rehabilitation program in 2002, although he later disputed being a sex addict.

Berry eventually recalled learning about his cheating through a Star Magazine report. According to People, the discovery came ten days after she won the Best Actress Oscar for “Monster’s Ball.”

That timing is brutal to contemplate: one of the greatest professional triumphs of her life colliding almost immediately with deeply personal heartbreak. Berry and Benét divorced in 2005.

After her marriage to Benét, Berry began a relationship with Canadian Model Gabriel Aubry. The two welcomed daughter Nahla Ariela Aubry before separating in 2010. Their breakup eventually turned into a long and expensive legal battle over custody and support.

In 2014, Berry was ordered to pay Aubry $16,000 per month, plus a lump sum of $115,000, according to a 2023 Daily Mail report. By 2021, the monthly amount had been reduced to $8,000.

Berry was also required to pay 4.3% of annual income above $1.95 million, but a later agreement placed a cap on the additional support at $109,650 per year. Away from those legal headlines, Berry has generally kept her children much more protected from public view.

Berry later married French Actor Olivier Martinez in 2013. They share son Maceo-Robert Martinez, but Berry and Martinez eventually separated and spent years working through their divorce and co-parenting arrangements.

Their divorce was finalized in 2023. Under the settlement, Berry agreed to pay Martinez $8,000 per month in child support, as well as 4.3% of income above $2 million, according to People’s report on the finalized divorce.

By 2024, however, co-parenting tensions had spilled back into court. A source told People that Berry and Martinez had “very different parenting styles” and that co-parenting had not been easy.

Berry alleged Martinez had stopped attending sessions with their co-parenting coach despite an earlier agreement. Martinez denied her allegations through his attorney, and a judge declined Berry’s request for emergency intervention.

So yes — Berry’s love story has come with some bruising chapters. But then Van Hunt entered the picture.

The Romance That Started with Talking for Four Months

Berry’s relationship with the musician began in a very different way from some of her earlier romances. As Berry explained during a 2024 appearance on “Armchair Expert,” people around them had repeatedly suggested the two might be a match.

Hunt’s brother had also been urging him to contact Berry. Eventually, as the pandemic began, Hunt sent her a message, and because COVID restrictions limited what new couples could do, Berry and Hunt were essentially forced to get to know each other without physical intimacy taking over.

Berry told AARP that they spent four months talking on the phone. “We were forced to only let our brains connect,” she explained, saying they talked for hours and never grew tired of each other.

Most tellingly, Berry said, “I really believe I’ve found my person.” She also said she fell in love with Hunt before she had even met him in person.

In a later Marie Claire interview, Berry said theirs was the first relationship in which she had been deeply in love before having sex, calling the experience “magical.” A broader account of their relationship published by Today notes that the pair went public as a couple in 2020.

Hunt is also a father, so the relationship joined two people who already understood parenthood before they found each other.

Yes, They Are Engaged

For a while, there was some confusion about whether Berry had rejected a marriage proposal from Hunt. She cleared that up herself. During a February 2026 appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Berry said:

“I did not say ‘no,’ we just don’t have a date. Of course, I said ‘yes, I would marry him.'”

Then she showed off the ring. “He did put a little ring on it,” Berry joked. The moment was also covered by People, confirming that after nearly six years together, Berry and Hunt had reached another milestone.

At 60, Berry is therefore not only celebrating a landmark birthday; she is doing it as an Oscar-winning mother of two who is engaged to a man she has described as her person.

And that leads to one playful question that naturally comes up when looking at Berry and Hunt together: What might children of theirs have looked like if they had chosen to have any together?

What AI Imagines Halle Berry and Van Hunt’s Kids Might Have Looked Like

To be crystal clear: the following children are not real. These are AI-generated, purely fictional visualizations imagining possible children of Berry and Hunt.

They do not depict Berry’s actual daughter Nahla, her actual son Maceo, Hunt’s actual son, or any other real child, and of course, genetics cannot truly be predicted from celebrity photographs. Still, as a lighthearted visual experiment, the results make for an interesting scroll.

Halle Berry is 60 years old today, but she was also…

…23

…28

…34

…36

For some, leaving Hollywood meant more than walking away from acting. They found new careers, built families, and settled into quieter lives – and a few have become almost unrecognizable from the characters audiences remember.

Amanda Bynes

Amanda Bynes followed an unexpected path after stepping away from the screen, pursuing new interests that gradually took her in a different professional direction.

In June 2019, the “She’s the Man” star graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. She documented the milestone herself on X, posting a photo in her cap and gown with the simple message, “FIDM graduate 2019.” Her studies continued after graduation.

In April 2022, Bynes told E! News that she was continuing with a bachelor’s degree at FIDM, majoring in Creative Industry Studies with a focus on Beauty Marketing and Product Development. She also said she planned to travel to New York that June to work on developing a fragrance intended for a holiday launch.

By October 2022, the former Nickelodeon star was learning another skill in the beauty field. Access Hollywood reported that she wrote in her Instagram bio that she was “in cosmetology college to become a manicurist.” She also shared a video from school that showed her training space and three nails painted with black and glittering silver polish.

Danica McKellar

Danica McKellar found an unusually academic path beyond child stardom. According to IMDb, McKellar is best known for playing Winnie Cooper on “The Wonder Years,” which ran from 1988 to 1993.

After growing up on television, however, she pursued an interest far removed from her famous character and graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics.

Her work in mathematics went beyond earning a degree. McKellar’s official website says she co-authored a mathematical physics theorem that bears her name, the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem. Her work was also recognized by Britain’s “Journal of Physics” and The New York Times.

McKellar returned to acting after UCLA, including a role as Elsie Snuffin on “The West Wing,” but she also found a way to turn mathematics into another profession.

She began writing books aimed at making math more approachable for young students, with early titles including “Math Doesn’t Suck,” “Kiss My Math,” “Hot X,” and “Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape.”

She later expanded her work to younger children. “Goodnight Numbers,” published in 2017, was followed by books including “Ten Magic Butterflies,” “Bathtime Mathtime,” “Do Not Open This Math Book,” “The Times Machine,” and “Double Puppy Trouble.”

According to her website, “Goodnight Numbers” has also been included in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library since 2018.

McKellar’s life away from work has also changed since her “Wonder Years” days. The site lists her as married to Scott Sveslosky since November 2014. She was previously married to Mike Verta from 2009 until their 2013 divorce, and they have one child, Draco McKellar Verta.

Omri Katz

Omri Katz stepped away from acting not long after “Hocus Pocus,” beginning a post-Hollywood life that took several unexpected turns.

According to IMDb, Katz played Max Dennison in the 1993 Disney film alongside Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Thora Birch. His Hollywood career did not last much longer.

Katz said in a 2024 interview with Bootleg Betty that starting young and maintaining a nonstop schedule eventually made him want a break. “I left the industry not too long after ‘Hocus Pocus’ and kind of never really looked back,” he said.

He spent the next five years following the Grateful Dead, then stayed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for five snowboarding seasons while surfing during the summers. After running out of money, Katz returned to Los Angeles and acting for what he later called “the wrong reasons.”

The comeback did not stick. Katz said his years away had left him with stage fright, and he realized acting was no longer for him. He waited tables before finding another profession and working as a hairdresser for eight years.

Cannabis eventually became a longer-term pursuit. Katz told Bloody Disgusting in 2022 that he had been involved with it since 2002, initially keeping his activities quiet. “Obviously I had to be discreet, stay under the radar, but I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.

He later established his own cannabis brand, The Mary Danksters. Katz told the outlet that the business was operating legally, while the brand described itself as “exotic craft cannabis cultivators.”

Danny Pintauro

Danny Pintauro’s life after “Who’s the Boss?” took him far beyond television, through college, restaurant work, and animal care, before another unexpected job put him back in the public eye.

Pintauro told Fox News Digital in May 2026 that starring on the hit sitcom from 1984 to 1992 did not leave him financially set for life. Residuals from television contracts of that era can be much smaller than viewers assume, he explained. For some early episodes, he said he now receives only “five to six cents per episode.”

Much of his earnings from the series went toward a different future.

Pintauro used the money to help pay for Stanford and support himself after the show ended. He also began working outside entertainment, starting with a job at the Gap.

More jobs followed. Pintauro waited tables and moved into management at P.F. Chang’s, then tried to become a theater director in New York. After moving to Austin, he worked at an animal shelter caring for cats while training to become a veterinary technician.

Eventually, the pull of acting returned. Pintauro left the animal shelter and moved to Los Angeles with his husband in 2022 to give the industry another shot. But pursuing acting full-time did not mean acting was paying the bills.

That is where Amazon Flex came in. Pintauro began using his own vehicle to deliver packages, groceries, and same-day orders. In April 2026, a selfie he posted while working as a delivery driver went viral, showing a side of former child stardom that many people may not associate with a successful sitcom.

“For me, as a working actor, I’m not working as an actor,” Pintauro said. The experience also gave him greater respect for people doing whatever work is necessary to support themselves and their families.

His husband, Wil Tabares, has shared much of that post-Hollywood journey with him. In an April Instagram post celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary, Pintauro wrote, “I’m still so thankful for this life with you,” and thanked Tabares for “the love, the memories, the laughter” they had shared.

Mike Vitar

Mike Vitar went from playing a gifted young baseball player on screen to a life far removed from movie sets and Hollywood premieres.

According to IMDb, Vitar played Benjamin “Benny” Franklin Rodriguez in the 1993 film “The Sandlot.” Set during the summer of 1962, the movie follows a new kid who joins Benny and his neighborhood baseball team, leading to a series of adventures.

Years after Vitar left acting, his “The Sandlot” co-star Patrick Renna offered a rare update on the former child star’s life. Renna contrasted the character fans remembered with the work Vitar later chose.

He said, “You know, the man started out as a childhood hero of everyone, and became a real-life hero, like he’s a firefighter. From what I’ve gathered, he’s just a private dude now.”

That career faced a serious interruption following a 2015 Halloween confrontation in Chatsworth. The Los Angeles Times reported that Vitar pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and received three years’ probation and 90 days of community service. He and fellow Los Angeles firefighter Eric Carpenter were suspended for six months without pay.

The suspension did not end Vitar’s career with the fire department. An LAFD spokesman told the newspaper that both men had returned to full duty.

Jamie Walters

Jamie Walters found fame as an actor and musician in the 1990s, but the demands of Hollywood eventually pushed him toward a career he had long considered from afar.

Walters played aspiring musician Ray Pruit on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” appearing in 40 episodes through 1996. The role followed earlier work in the film “Shout” and the television series “The Heights,” which produced his hit song “How Do You Talk to an Angel.”

His time on “90210” became more complicated when Ray’s relationship with Donna Martin, played by Tori Spelling, turned abusive. Walters recalled receiving hate mail and being confronted by viewers who struggled to separate him from his character.

The reaction contributed to his growing doubts about acting. Walters eventually decided to pursue a very different profession.

In an interview with The U.S. Sun, he said becoming a firefighter had interested him for years, although getting there proved difficult. The application process took about three years and included medical exams, background checks, psychological screening, and physical tests before he received an offer to enter the training academy in 2003.

More than two decades later, Walters was still working as a firefighter-paramedic with the Los Angeles Fire Department. The career change occasionally surprised people who remembered him from television.

“A lot of years have gone by and I don’t think people are expecting when the fire department shows up that the guy in uniform might be somebody from a TV show in the 90s,” he said.

His two careers even crossed paths unexpectedly. Walters recalled responding to a traffic accident when his former “90210” co-star Luke Perry happened to drive past the scene. Perry recognized him in uniform and called out his name, giving the former castmates a brief reunion on the job.

Walters also built a family away from his teen-idol years and described himself as a single father of four. Looking back, he said leaving show business gave him work that both he and his children could take pride in.

“I’m thankful that I was able to switch gears and do something that I’m proud of and that my kids find interesting and cool,” he said.

Despite spending more than 20 years in the fire service, Walters has not completely closed the door on entertainment. He continues to play music and said he would consider acting again after his firefighting career ends.