Martha Stewart reveals why she broke up with Anthony Hopkins

Watch Anthony Hopkins sing "Volare" 1:06

(CNN) --

Martha Stewart has revealed she ended her romance with Anthony Hopkins because she couldn't separate the actor from his most notorious film role.

On 'The Ellen Show', the 80-year-old lifestyle guru and TV personality said she had to break up with the 84-year-old Welsh Oscar winner after recalling her chilling performance in the thriller 1991 horror film "The Silence of the Lambs."

In the film, Hopkins played Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a convicted serial killer who ate his victims.

Although his critically acclaimed performance earned him an Oscar for best actor in 1992, it cost him his relationship with Stewart.

During a game of "Two Truths and a Lie" called "Where's the Lie, Martha?", one of the clues read: "I dated Sir Anthony Hopkins but broke up with him because I couldn't stop thinking of him as Hannibal Lecter. ".

• Anthony Hopkins to the rhythm of "Volare"

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Host Ellen DeGeneres called it a "lie," but Stewart revealed that it was indeed true.

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Stewart, a gourmet chef who built a career on the opposite end of the cooking spectrum from Hopkin's alter ego, admitted she was too concerned with life imitating art to continue dating the screen star.

"I have a big, creepy house in Maine that sits alone on 100 acres in the woods, and I couldn't even imagine taking Anthony Hopkins there," the "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party" host told DeGeneres.

"I couldn't - all I could think about was him eating, you know..."

When DeGeneres asked Stewart if she broke up with the actor "because of that," she replied, "Yes."

Although it's unclear when Stewart and the Hollywood star dated, it was likely before Hopkins married his third wife, Stella Arroyave, in 2003.

Stewart, who divorced ex-husband Andrew Stewart in 1990 after nearly three decades of marriage, previously discussed her fleeting romance with Hopkins during a 2014 appearance on "The Meredith Vieira Show," saying they "went out to dinner" a couple of times, but insisted that "a girl should kiss and never tell".

However, missing appointments was not enough reason for Hopkins to say goodbye to the famous Lecter.

He reprized the sinister role in Ridley Scott's 2001 "Hannibal" and Brett Ratner's 2002 prequel "Red Dragon."

Martha Stewart