Penn Badgley and Blake Lively are among the stars who fell in love on set — and still had to work together after breaking up

With built-in natural chemistry, is it any surprise that on-screen couples often fall in love off-screen, too? However, it doesn’t mean that real-life relationships are always built to last.

Just like it’s common for Hollywood costars to date, it’s also not rare for them to break up — and sometimes, still work together. If anything, pretending to be in love after really being in love shows how impressive their acting skills are!

For some celebrity exes, staying friends wasn’t a problem, like Felicity alums Keri Russell and Scott Speedman and The Big Bang Theory stars Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki. These acting duos managed to navigate any awkwardness and maintained their friendship once the romantic spark fizzled.

Plenty aren’t as comfortable teaming up on-screen with former flames, though. Cole Sprouse admitted that it was tough filming Riverdale with his ex-girlfriend and castmate Lili Reinhart after they called it quits.

Others turned tensions into award-winning performances. Olivia Rodrigo launched a music career following her breakup with fellow High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star Joshua Bassett.

Whether these actors’ characters remained romantically linked or ended their fictional on-screen relationships, find out how former TV costars handled their split IRL.

01 of 15

Dominic Fike and Hunter Schafer

When Dominic Fike joined the season 2 cast of Euphoria, his character Elliot began a romantic fling with Hunter Schafer‘s Jules in February 2022. Off-screen, life imitated art, and the pair dated for over a year. Fike confirmed their breakup in July 2023 during a conversation with Apple Music‘s Zane Lowe.

Calling himself a “relationship person” who feels “uncomfortable being alone,” the “Babydoll” singer told The Los Angeles Times at the time, “That’s a bad thing. So I decided to just be alone for a while.”

However, during an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast in August 2024, Schafer revealed that Fike was unfaithful.

“It’s part of why the relationship ended, is I got cheated on for the first time,” she told host Alex Cooper. “He’s talked about this, too — in his songs, he writes about it — so it’s fine to be talking about it today, and it’s part of my truth.”

Despite the infidelity, Schafer described their breakup as mutual and relatively smooth.

“It was one of the cleaner breakups I’ve had, like we both recognize that this is not working, and we can’t do this,” she said. “We gotta go our own separate ways. It was a clean parting, and he has a lot to work on, and I also have a lot to work on.”

Both returned for season 3 of Euphoria, which premiered in April 2026. Of filming again with his ex, Fike told Lowe, “I think it’ll be fine. We’re all adults, kind of. I’m trying.”

02 of 15

Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo

The rift between High School Musical: The Musical: The Series costars Rodrigo (Nini) and Bassett (Richard “Ricky” Bowen) became one of the most talked-about off-screen breakups of the 2020s.

While their romance stayed under wraps during the time on the show, Rodrigo’s 2021 debut single, “Driver’s License,” set the internet on fire with speculation, allegedly alluding to their split and Bassett’s rumored relationship with fellow rising star Sabrina Carpenter.

The drama helped launch Rodrigo into pop superstardom, leading to Grammy Awards, sold-out tours and, ultimately, her departure from HSMTMTS after season 3. Still, she and Bassett appeared to be on good terms when they reunited on the red carpet for the season 3 premiere, smiling and posing for photos together.

After coming out as part of the LGBTQ+ community in June 2021, Bassett told PEOPLE in March 2022 that “dating is not on my radar.”

Meanwhile, Rodrigo briefly dated Adam Faze and Zack Bia before beginning a relationship with Louis Partridge in 2023. In December 2025, Deuxmoi reported speculation that she and Partridge had split. However, Rodrigo told Dazed in June 2026 that she wouldn’t be addressing their relationship publicly.

The singer-songwriter also didn’t provide clarity on whether her third studio album — You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, released on June 12 — would.

“I mean, I never talk about my personal life in interviews or on any public forum, so I guess the music is where people would go to deduce things,” she told the publication. “But, you know, it’s just a song at the end of the day.”

As for Rodrigo and Carpenter, they hugged it out at the 2025 Grammys, and Elle reported that the pair are on good terms.

03 of 15

Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes

When Outer Banks premiered on Netflix in April 2020, costars Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes, who play star-crossed lovers Sarah Cameron and John B. Routledge on the series, didn’t make their off-screen romance official on Instagram until that June.

Over the next year and a half, the two shared plenty of sweet moments, including starring in a steamy music video for Kygo and making their red-carpet debut at the 2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards, where they won Best Kiss.

By November 2021, sources confirmed to PEOPLE Cline and Stokes ended their relationship.

“Madelyn and Chase are no longer together. They were trying to work things out privately but broke up a couple of months ago,” an insider said.

The two remained professional while continuing to film Outer Banks.

“Mads and I have been working together now for 30 episodes, and we made a promise to each other before we even started dating that the work was always going to come first,” Stokes told Entertainment Weekly in February 2023. “And that no matter what happens in our personal lives and the ways that life sometimes takes you in different directions, that we’re always going to honor the work.”

In January 2023, Stokes began dating musician Kelsea Ballerini. PEOPLE confirmed Ballerini and Stokes split in September 2025, but by January 2026, the pair announced they had reconciled. Ballerini and Stokes broke up again five weeks later.

After the split with Stokes, Cline was in a relationship with Saturday Night Live alum Pete Davidson from September 2023 through July 2024. She was then linked to Prince Constantine-Alexios of Greece in September 2025 but never publicly commented on the romance rumors. Cline started dating influencer Henry Smith in April 2026, but they called it quits in July.

04 of 15

Scott Speedman and Keri Russell

Russell (Felicity Porter) and Speedman (Ben Covington) — two halves of Felicity‘s core love triangle — brought their on-screen romance to real life in the early 2000s, though it didn’t last long.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in May 2017, Speedman joked that he was a “disaster of a boyfriend,” to which Russell playfully clarified that “a young 20s boyfriend is called a disaster of a boyfriend.” Speedman laughed, adding, “Not much has changed.”

Regardless of how their relationship played out, their friendship has endured.

“I have core friends in L.A.,” Russell said. “[Amanda Foreman] and Scott, I feel like they always have my back. Like, they would fight someone for me.”

The two appear quite happy with their current partners. Russell has been dating her former The Americans costar Matthew Rhys since 2013 — they share son Sam, and she has two older children with her ex-husband Shane Deary — while Speedman has two kids with fiancée Lindsay Rae Hoffman, whom he proposed to in June 2023.

05 of 15

Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan

While playing spy lovers Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn on ABC’s action thriller series Alias, Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan had a short-lived off-screen romance between 2003 and 2004.

The two have remained close over the years. In November 2023, Garner — who’s been in an on-and-off-again relationship with businessman John Miller since October 2018 and shares three children with ex-husband Ben Affleck — gave Vartan a birthday shoutout on Instagram.

“I can’t remember why I was Bavarian, but I do know today is your birthday. I hope it’s a great one, Michael! XX S. Bristow,” she wrote alongside a sweet throwback photo of the pair on set.

Vartan was married to Lauren Skaar from 2011 to 2014.

06 of 15

Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse

In March 2020, Reinhart and Sprouse split after two years of their on-again, off-again relationship.

While dating, the former Riverdale costars — who played love interests Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones on the CW’s twist on Archie Comics — made their romance known by posting sweet moments on social media, appearing as a couple for the first time on the 2018 Met Gala red carpet and sharing photos from Reinhart taking Sprouse home for Thanksgiving 2018.

Sprouse eventually confirmed their split in August 2020 in a rare public statement.

“Lili and I initially separated in January of this year, deciding to more permanently split in March,” he wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. “What an incredible experience I had; I’ll always feel lucky and cherish that I had the chance to fall in love. I wish her nothing but the utmost love and happiness moving forward. All I’ll say about it, anything else you hear doesn’t matter.”

Then in March 2023, Sprouse opened up about their breakup on Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, admitting that continuing to work together on Riverdale complicated things.

“It was really hard. It was really hard for both of us,” he said. “I think the work thing got difficult because it was hard to suspend all the way we felt about each other, and it didn’t afford us the luxury of distance to really overcome that. I know we both did quite a bit of damage to each other in that.”

The two have since moved on. Reinhart has been dating actor Jack Martin since April 2023, while Sprouse has been romantically linked to model Ari Fournier since 2021.

07 of 15

Penn Badgley and Blake Lively

Penn Badgley and Blake Lively‘s on-screen relationship mirrored their real-life one when they dated during the first few seasons of Gossip Girl.

The former couple — who played Serena van der Woodsen and Dan Humphrey — first became romantically linked in 2007. Although they initially denied their relationship, the pair went public a year later before breaking up in 2010.

According to Vanity Fair, the actors hid their split from the cast and crew while filming the show.

“The shocking thing was, I found out on the set of the season 2 finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before,” Gossip Girl‘s executive producer and writer Joshua Safran told the publication.

He added, “They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now. I don’t even know how they did it. They kept it from everybody, which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show.”

When asked how they worked together after their split, Badgley said, “We were constantly professional, to be honest, and we should both pat ourselves on the back because anything is complicated in that way … and we handled it.”

The two have since married other people. Lively tied the knot with her former Green Lantern costar Ryan Reynolds in 2012, and the pair have since welcomed four children together. Badgley, meanwhile, has three sons with wife Domino Kirke, whom he wed in 2017, and is stepfather to her son Cassius.

08 of 15

Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody

Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody — who fell in love playing “It Couple” Summer Roberts and Seth Cohen, respectively, on The O.C. — broke up in 2006 after three years of dating.

“It was a typical romance, and they just grew apart,” a source close to the pair told PEOPLE at the time of their split.

Although they didn’t reach the altar in real life, their O.C. characters married at the end of the cult-classic series. Bilson and Brody did have a random run-in at the airport in August 2019.

They later reunited in October 2021 on Bilson’s Welcome to the OC, B—-es! podcast and talked about working after their breakup.

“It was really a non-issue,” the Hart of Dixie actress said. “I was Summer, and he was Seth, and we walked onto set, and we did our scenes, and it carried through until the end of the show. There was never any real drama with us off camera.”

Brody did end up having a swoonworthy relationship worthy of any millennial teen show — he married Gossip Girl alum Leighton Meester in February 2014, and the pair are parents of two. Bilson, meanwhile, shares daughter Briar Rose with ex Hayden Christensen.

09 of 15

Sophia Bush and Jesse Lee Soffer

Sophia Bush (Detective Erin Lindsay) dated her Chicago P.D. costar Jesse Lee Soffer (Detective Jay Halstead) for about a year before calling it quits in June 2015, per Just Jared.

“Sophia and Jesse just didn’t work out,” a source told the outlet. “They dated for about a year and then grew apart. They’re still friends, though!”

In May 2017, Bush departed the procedural. Soffer, who later left Chicago P.D. during season 10, told TV Line in November of that year that he was “sad” to see her go, but Bush said she left because “I was really, really unhappy.”

Bush has been dating retired soccer star Ashlyn Harris since fall of 2023, but Soffer wasn’t the only costar she fell in love with. During her time on One Tree Hill, she was married to Chad Michael Murray from April 2005 to December 2006, briefly dated James Lafferty and was in an on-and-off six-year relationship with Austin Nichols.

Chicago P.D. alums Soffer and Tracy Spiridakos — who played his on-screen spouse Detective Hailey Upton on the police drama — have fueled romance rumors since August 2024. (Spiridakos left the series in May 2024.)

10 of 15

Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder

After three years of dating, The Vampire Diaries costars Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder split in May 2013. Their characters Elena and Damon, however, remained romantically entwined. That post-breakup intimacy might be why Dobrev has insisted it’s not “weird” that she’s still friends with Somerhalder and that she occasionally grabs dinner with her ex and his now-wife, Twilight actress Nikki Reed.

“I don’t think that’s weird at all. I think that’s great,” Dobrev said on an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in January 2019 when asked if it was strange to spend time with her ex. “Why can’t everyone be friends? I think they have a beautiful baby, and they are happy, and so am I. What’s bad about that? I don’t see any problem with that.”

Somerhalder and Reed share two children — in addition to welcoming daughter Bodhi Soleil, whom Dobrev was referring to on WWHL, in July 2017, they had a son in June 2023.

Dobrev was engaged to Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, though the pair split in September 2025 after about six years together.

11 of 15

Milo Ventimiglia and Alexis Bledel

Alexis Bledel and Milo Ventimiglia played Gilmore Girls‘ on-again, off-again couple Rory Gilmore and Jess Mariano, and they kept their real-life relationship mostly under wraps. The pair dated for three-and-a-half years before breaking up in July 2006.

Bledel told PEOPLE in September 2005 that the two were serious enough to discuss marriage: “I think everybody who has been dating for more than a couple of years probably talks about it at some point. It’s a fun thing for us to talk about, but that’s it.”

The exes appear to be on good terms. They reunited on-screen when they reprised their roles on Netflix’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life in 2016. Ventimiglia praised Bledel after she won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for The Handmaid’s Tale, telling The Daily Dish in September 2017 that he was “very happy for her” and that “she’s always been a great actor.”

Ventimiglia isn’t Bledel’s only Gilmore Girls ex. She also briefly dated Jared Padalecki, who played Rory’s first on-screen boyfriend Dean Forester.

These days, Bledel shares one son with her ex-husband and former Mad Men costar and on-screen love interest Vincent Kartheiser. As for Ventimiglia, he has been married to model Jarah Mariano since late 2023. They welcomed their first child, Ke’ala Coral, in January 2025 and are expecting their second child in 2026.

12 of 15

Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter

Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, who played siblings Dexter and Debra Morgan on Dexter, wed on New Year’s Eve 2008 and filed for divorce in December 2010.

Even though their marriage didn’t work out, they seemingly maintained a positive relationship over the years.

“He is and always will be one of my best friends in the world. Just because the marriage ended doesn’t mean the love isn’t still there,” Carpenter told Today in October 2011. “We take very good care of each other … we always have. I’m just really lucky.”

Though things seemed quite amicable when the two were spotted cuddling up in 2012, they didn’t rekindle their romance. In fact, both remarried in 2016 — Hall tied the knot with third wife Morgan Macgregor, while Carpenter wed The Avett Brothers’ Seth Avett, with whom she shares son Isaac.

13 of 15

Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer

House costars Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Allison Cameron) and Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase) met in 2004 while filming the Fox medical drama’s pilot. They got engaged in Paris before breaking things off eight months later in August 2007. Awkwardly, before calling off their engagement, the two covered InStyle Weddings, where Spencer revealed that his planned proposal took six months to execute.

Despite no longer being an IRL couple, Morrison and Spencer had to remain romantically entangled on screen.

They got around the awkwardness by kissing only when the cameras were running, rather than during rehearsals.

“Out of respect, I saved it for the take,’’ Morrison told The Herald Sun in a since-deleted article.

Spencer added, “There’s a different intensity now, but I think it really works.’’

Morrison has since married actor Gerardo Celasco, with whom she had a child in 2024, while Spencer married neuroscientist Dr. Kali Woodruff Carr in June 2020.

14 of 15

Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson

Dawson’s Creek fans fell for Pacey Witter and Joey Potter; the characters fell for each other, and actors Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes fell for each other in real life.

Without addressing him by name, Holmes told Rolling Stone in September 1998 that they shared a love that was “incredible and indescribable.”

“I feel so fortunate because he’s now one of my best friends. It’s weird; it’s almost like a Dawson-and-Joey type thing now,” she said.

Though they went their separate ways, Jackson revealed that Holmes called him up in 2012 after her split from Tom Cruise.

“Like any old friend, it was like, ‘Oh, hi, how are ya? What’s going on?’ “ he told the Toronto Sun in September of that year. “It was very nice, actually.”

More than 20 years after Dawson’s Creek ended, the pair reunited on-screen for the film Happy Hours, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2026 and marked Holmes’ fourth movie as a writer and director.

Jackson spoke about the “magical” experience of reuniting with Holmes during a March 2026 appearance on Today.

“That time in my life would be for most people like their college years, right?” he said, referencing his Dawson’s Creek days. “And there are these people in your life — she’s a lifelong friend now — and for us to be able to go back and do this again, and, honestly, for her to be able to create that space for us was kind of magical.”

15 of 15

Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki

The Big Bang Theory costars dated for almost two years before ending things in 2010. However, their characters Penny and Leonard Hofstadter stayed together on-screen long after the actors’ real-life split, even marrying on the show.

Luckily, Cuoco and Galecki remained very close friends, to the point that fans questioned whether they had gotten back together.

On Instagram, Cuoco defended their close relationship after rumors that he played a role in her 2016 divorce from Ryan Sweeting by writing in a now-deleted post, “So sorry to disappoint, but no home wreckers or secret flings going on here … Me and @sanctionedjohnnygalecki are just the best of buds — Leonard and Penny will just have to suffice!!! 💗💗❤️❤️.”

In March 2023, Cuoco welcomed daughter Matilda with fiancé Tom Pelphrey, while Galecki married Morgan Galecki, with whom he shares daughter Oona Evalena, the following year. The Roseanne alum also has an older son, Avery Orbinson, from his prior relationship with Alaina Meyer.

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