He stunned fans when he revealed he and Transformers co-star Megan Fox had a fling in real life.
But today, just hours after the story broke, Shia put on a united front with girlfriend Karolyn Pho as they strolled along in New York.
Stylist Karolyn seemed unconcerned about her boyfriend's kiss and tell, and grinned at him broadly as she held his hand.
In the latest issue of Details magazine, Shia nodded when asked whether he and Megan had ever 'hooked up'.
'Look, you're on the set for six months, with someone who's rooting to be attracted to you, and you're rooting to be attracted to them,' he tells the magazine in a new interview.
'I never understood the separation of work and life in that situation,' he adds.
'But the time I spent with Megan was our own thing, and I think you can see the chemistry on screen.'
The actor played Samuel Witwicky opposite Megan's Mikaela Banes in the first two Transformers movies.
However, he does not give any dates of details of the romance and appears unsure when asked about Megan's status at the time with her then-boyfriend Brian Austin Green, who is now her husband.
'I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know,' he tells the magazine, before finally saying: 'It was what it was.'
Megan was replaced by Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for the third Transformers film Dark Of The Moon.
The franchise's director Michael Bay recently revealed that the 25-year-old actress was replaced in the latest movie at the orders of executive producer Steven Spielberg, after she compared Bay to Hitler in a magazine interview.
Shia, 25, also opens up about his past girlfriends, including British actress Carey Mulligan.
The couple, who met on the set of Wall Street 2, dated for a year before splitting last October.
'We're still pals. I wouldn't take any of it back, and I don't think she would either. It just ran its course.'
The actor also revealed a date he went on with Hilary Duff was 'probably the worst date either of us have ever had'.
And he says his dalliance with Transformers co-star Isabel Lucas was 'sort of disastrous'.
'Neither one of us, I think, were in love. Just sort of experimenting or whatever,' he says.
But today, just hours after the story broke, Shia put on a united front with girlfriend Karolyn Pho as they strolled along in New York.
Stylist Karolyn seemed unconcerned about her boyfriend's kiss and tell, and grinned at him broadly as she held his hand.
In the latest issue of Details magazine, Shia nodded when asked whether he and Megan had ever 'hooked up'.
'Look, you're on the set for six months, with someone who's rooting to be attracted to you, and you're rooting to be attracted to them,' he tells the magazine in a new interview.
'I never understood the separation of work and life in that situation,' he adds.
'But the time I spent with Megan was our own thing, and I think you can see the chemistry on screen.'
The actor played Samuel Witwicky opposite Megan's Mikaela Banes in the first two Transformers movies.
However, he does not give any dates of details of the romance and appears unsure when asked about Megan's status at the time with her then-boyfriend Brian Austin Green, who is now her husband.
Megan was replaced by Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for the third Transformers film Dark Of The Moon.
The franchise's director Michael Bay recently revealed that the 25-year-old actress was replaced in the latest movie at the orders of executive producer Steven Spielberg, after she compared Bay to Hitler in a magazine interview.
Shia, 25, also opens up about his past girlfriends, including British actress Carey Mulligan.
The couple, who met on the set of Wall Street 2, dated for a year before splitting last October.
'We're still pals. I wouldn't take any of it back, and I don't think she would either. It just ran its course.'
The actor also revealed a date he went on with Hilary Duff was 'probably the worst date either of us have ever had'.
And he says his dalliance with Transformers co-star Isabel Lucas was 'sort of disastrous'.
'Neither one of us, I think, were in love. Just sort of experimenting or whatever,' he says.
