Jodie Foster has been sent a new message by John Hinckley Jr., the man who stalked her before shooting President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in a bid to gain her attention.
Hinckley, now 71, addressed the 63-year-old actress during a virtual appearance on the forthcoming Wednesday episode of The Mark Joseph Show podcast.
‘I just wish Jodie Foster well,’ he said in an exclusive preview shared by Entertainment Weekly (EW).
‘I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well,’ Hinckley added. ‘And that’s all I can say: I just, I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.’
Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Foster seeking comment.
The remarks come 45 years after Hinckley shot then-President Reagan outside a Hilton hotel in Washington, DC.
Following the attack, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent more than two decades confined to a mental hospital.
Jodie Foster, 63, has received a new message from former stalker John Hinckley Jr., who opened fire on Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an attempt to impress her; Foster pictured in June
Hinckley, 71, wished the actress well while appearing virtually on the upcoming Wednesday episode of The Mark Joseph Show podcast; Pictured in his mugshot in 1981
He was granted unconditional release from all remaining restrictive conditions in June 2022.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman made the ruling, agreeing to free Hinckley from restrictions as long as he continued to do well.
Hinckley had been confined to a mental hospital in Washington for more than 20 years.
Then, in 2003 Friedman began allowing him to live for longer stretches in the community with requirements like attending therapy and restrictions on where he could travel. He began living in Virginia full-time in 2016.
‘I wanted to have a union with Jodie Foster and live the rest of my life with her and all these things that, of course, were delusional,’ Hinckley told host Mark Joseph in EW’s clip.
‘But I was believing those things at the time. So the best outcome would have been a union with Jodie Foster… in this life.’
Hinckley explained, ‘I thought she would, you know, after things settled down, join me wherever I was.’
‘I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be in jail or the hospital or what. But after things settled down, I had this notion that she was gonna join me wherever I was.’
‘I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well,’ he said, adding, ‘I hope she has a good life’; Seen in a still from his YouTube channel
It comes 45 years after Hinckley shot then-president Reagan at a Hilton hotel in Washington DC in March 30, 2981 while suffering from acute psychosis
Hinckley was desperate to impress Foster after seeing her in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver; Foster pictured in 1981
Hinckley was 25 and suffering from acute psychosis when he fired a .22 long rifle bullet that ricocheted off the presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the torso.
It punctured a lung and caused serious internal bleeding.
The assassination attempt also paralyzed then-Press Secretary James Brady, who died in 2014, and wounded a police officer and a Secret Service agent.
Hinckley was desperate to impress Foster after seeing her in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver.
In the upcoming interview, Joseph asked him if the movie star could have been ‘a potential target’ of his gun violence.
‘She definitely could have been a target. It’s just, fate went the other way,’ he replied, adding, ‘As fate turns out, it was Reagan instead of her.’
In June 2024, Foster made a rare comment about the ordeal, telling Interview magazine: ‘I’m finally able to admit that the one bit of theater I did when I was in college, there was so much trauma involved in it.’
‘The play happened in two weekends, and I did the first weekend, and in between the first weekend and the second weekend, John Hinckley shot the president… He shot him in order to impress me, and he had written letters to me, so it was a big moment in my life.’
