John Hinckley Jr. Shares New Message for Jodie Foster 45 Years After Shooting Ronald Reagan to Impress Her

Jack SmartTue, August 11, 2026 at 10:59 PM UTC

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John Hinckley Jr.; Jodie FosterCredit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty; TheStewartofNY/WireImage -

John Hinckley Jr. will appear on The Mark Joseph Show Tuesday, Aug. 12

In a preview clip from the interview, Hinckley sheds light on his 1981 assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan, which he has previously said was an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster

“I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life,” he said

John Hinckley Jr. has a new message for Jodie Foster.

Over 45 years after Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress the actress-filmmaker, he appeared via video onThe Mark Joseph Show podcast for a rare interview.

“I just wish Jodie Foster well,” Hinckley, 71, said, per Entertainment Weekly‘s exclusive preview of the interview, which will air on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

“I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well,” he added. “And that’s all I can say: I just, I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.”

John Hinckley, Jr. in 1981; Jodie Foster in 1979Credit: Courtesy Bureau of Prisons/Getty; Nancy R. Schiff/Getty

PEOPLE has reached out to a rep for Foster for comment.

Hinckley’s attempted shooting of the late Reagan occurred outside the Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981. The president suffered a broken rib, punctured lung and severe internal bleeding. Three men were also wounded by Hinckley’s bullets, including White House press secretary James Brady, who was permanently disabled and died in 2014 as a result of his injury.

Eventually found not guilty by reason of mental illness, Hinckley had said the shooting was an attempt to impress Foster, then 18 years old, after seeing her in 1976’s Taxi Driver. He was committed to a psychiatric hospital, discharged in 2016, and was fully released from court restrictions in 2022.

The Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington DC on March 30, 1981Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty

“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 The Mark Joseph Show host Mark Joseph. “But I was believing those things at the time. So the best outcome would have been a union with Jodie Foster … in this life.”

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Joseph, 58, who produced the 2024 biopic Reagan starring Dennis Quaid as the late actor-president, asked Hinckley if he had considered the possibility of jail time amid planning his assassination attempt.

“I thought [Foster] would, you know, after things settled down, join me wherever I was,” he responded. “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.”

Hinckley’s 2025 autobiography, John Hinckley Jr.: Who I Really Am, included details of his delusional state around the time of the incident. In his interview, Joseph also asked Hinckley if it was true that Foster could have been “a potential target” of his violence. “Right, yeah. She definitely could have been a target. It’s just, fate went the other way,” answered Hinckley. “As fate turns out, it was Reagan instead of her.”

Foster, now 63, has rarely commented on the incident, which occurred while she was attending Yale University. In a June 2024 conversation with Jodie Comer for Interview magazine, Foster revealed that the reason she may never do live theater again is linked to Hinckley’s assassination attempt.

“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,” said the two-time Oscar winner at the time. “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.”

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Joseph’s interview with Hinckley will be available Wednesday on The Mark Joseph Show.

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