The old interview circulates on the Internet again amid controversy over the 48-year-old Oscar-winning actor's alleged new romance with 19-year-old Israeli model Eden Polani.
- Feb 9, 2023
AceShowbiz - Mischa Barton made pretty shocking comments about Leonardo DiCaprio in an old interview. The Marissa Cooper depicter on "The O.C." claimed that she was once told to sleep with the "Titanic" star when she was only 19 years old. Interestingly, the interview resurfaced amid the actor's controversial alleged new romance with 19-year-old model Eden Polani.
Mischa, now 37, spoke to Harpers & Queen at the height of her fame on "The O.C." and recounted an incident where she and her then-publicist Craig Schneider saw Leo at a photoshoot in Malibu. At the time, the Oscar winner had just broken up with Gisele Bundchen after a six-year on-and-off romance.
In the 2005 interview, Mischa shared that Craig told her, "For the sake of your career, go and sleep with that man." The actress, however, said she was not interested in older men, telling the publication, "Isn't Leo, like, 30 or something?"
The chat resurfaced amid backlash over Leo's alleged new romance with Eden. Rumors of them being an item emerged after Leo was photographed getting close to the Israeli beauty at Ebony Riley's release party for her new EP on January 31 in Los Angeles. In some pictures, the "Don't Look Up" actor could be seen showing off a smile next to the model as he appeared to enjoy himself at the party.
After photos of Leo and Eden made its way online, some Twitter critics called him out. "Leonardo DiCaprio's girlfriend is so young her high school experience was interrupted by COVID-19," one person wrote. Someone else commented, "Stop making jokes about Leonardo DiCaprio being a almost 50 dating literal teenagers and start calling him what he is - a predator."
Seemingly noticing the intense social media backlash, Eden decided to bid farewell to Instagram. Her account, @edenpolanii, which has amassed 230,000 followers, was active until Wednesday morning, February 8. Unfortunately, the page "isn't available" now.
Amid the buzz, sources close to Leo confirmed to Daily Mail that they're "not dating." The insiders said, "They were seated next to each other at a music-listening party. There were a number of people at that event."
Meanwhile, a different source told Page Six, "There is zero truth to this. He was seated next to [Eden] at a music party, along with many other people." The informant added, "It's just silly. Leo clearly can't be dating every single person that [he's] in a room with."
