A Look Back at Tom Selleck’s Love Life with His 1982 PEOPLE Cover (Exclusive)

Tom Selleck’s love life wasn’t always smooth sailing.

The Blue Bloods actor, 79, who is this week’s cover star, spoke to PEOPLE more than four decades ago for his first cover story on March 8, 1982, just as the Emmy-winning Magnum P.I. star was rising to fame as the face of the hit CBS show.

At the time, PEOPLE wrote that Hollywood was steadily taking note of Selleck’s “knockout Hawaiian punch,” and that legions of fans were quick to swarm wherever the actor, who played private investigator Thomas Magnum, appeared.

During the early days of Magnum P.I, Selleck was separated, but not legally divorced, from his first wife Jacquelyn Ray. He admitted at the time that he was hesitant to begin a new relationship.

“I’m self-protective,” he said at the time. “One of my nightmares would be to get heavily involved with somebody while I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on in my life.”

“I’ve told a couple people I’ve gone out with, ‘If I don’t call you for five or six days, it’s not because I didn’t have a good time. It’s because I’m a flake,'” he added.

Selleck’s then-newfound celebrity — he had also appeared in ABC’s The Divorce Wars: A Love Story with Jane Curtin — also presented challenges on the dating front.

“There aren’t enough hours in the day to conduct relationships,” he recalled, adding that “it’s very fatiguing to know that everything you do, all day, is being photographed. I’m not saying it’s a cross to bear, it’s just not a very easy adjustment.”

Today, Selleck has been happily married to wife Jillie Mack for decades. He reflected on their Aug. 7 1987 wedding ahead of the publication of his new memoir, You Never Know, out May 7.

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The couple were married in a private ceremony near Lake Tahoe, Nevada — and experienced a startling snafu on the big day.

“Jillie can talk really fast and a lot and loudly, and I heard all this stuff and I think Dan went to check, and we had all forgotten the [marriage] license,” Selleck said.

Despite the surprise mix-up, Selleck — who shares daughter Hannah with Mack — says that the event, rescued by the Reverend, remains a memory that he’ll cherish forever.

“That’s what I remember most about the wedding. And Reverend David saying I’ll sign the thing anyway,” he continued. “And he went all the way into Reno himself so we could have dinner and brought it back. So yeah, it was just an adventure. I wouldn’t trade it.”

For more on Tom Selleck, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. 

You Never Know hits bookshelves May 7.