‘Riverdale’ Stars Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse: A Timeline of Their Relationship

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'Riverdale' Stars Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse: A Timeline of Their Relationship

Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse's on-again, off-again relationship made headlines from the moment Riverdale first aired. Reinhart initially played coy in 2017 about her offscreen relationship with Sprouse, but in September 2018, he confirmed their intimate romance with a sexy Instagram snap. At the time, Sprouse posted a topless photo of Reinhart to celebrate her birthday. “Both the birthday and the gift,” he captioned the image of Reinhart with her arms crossed over her bare chest while looking at herself in the mirror via Instagram. “My little muse, happy birthday my love.” Us Weekly broke the news in July 2019 that the pair split. While they later reunited, they pulled the plug on their romance again the following May. Scroll through for a complete timeline of their relationship — and their candid quotes about each other post-split:

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July 2017

Reinhart and Sprouse sparked offscreen romance rumors in July 2017 after she was spotted wearing his jacket at Entertainment Weekly’s Comic-Con party. The twosome were also seen kissing and holding hands during the trip to San Diego for the convention.  

That same month, an eyewitness told Us that the pair were openly affectionate with each other while filming in Vancouver. “Cole and Lili were holding hands and looked really coupley,” the eyewitness said. “Also, the way he grabbed her waist to bring her in for a photo seemed more than friendly.”

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August 2017

The Good Neighbor actress fueled relationship reports in August 2017 after she sent a heartfelt message to the Disney alum on his 25th birthday. “To the man who has showed me more beautiful places in this past year than I have ever seen in my whole life,” Reinhart wrote on Instagram at the time. “Happy birthday, Cole. Thank you for all of the adventures and here's to many more 🌙” 

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October 2017

Sprouse joked in October 2017 that he made producers add kissing scenes with Reinhart to his contract. “A little bit more of that, which is going to be good,” he quipped on Live With Kelly and Ryan. “They’re contractually obliged to give me as many kiss scenes as possible this season. I wrote it into my contract.”

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January 2018

The duo were seen getting cozy on the beach in Hawaii in January 2018.

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March 2018

Sprouse and Reinhart publicly addressed their relationship for the first time in March 2018 after a fan asked, “Are you dating,” during a Q&A at PaleyFest L.A. While the actor gave a big grin and replied, “No comment,” Reinhart remained silent. 

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April 2018

The twosome packed on the PDA during a trip to Paris in April 2018. Later that month, they were seen enjoying a trip to Mexico. 

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May 2018

Sprouse and Reinhart made their red carpet debut at the Met Gala in May 2018.

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August 2018

Reinhart called Sprouse her “love” while wishing him happy birthday in August 2018. “It seems as if the world would still be a stranger to me, if not for you,” she penned on Instagram. “I’m so thankful that our paths intertwined to form this beautiful adventure ~ Happy birthday, my love.” 

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September 2018

The Hustlers star poked fun at herself in September 2018 after her Riverdale costar KJ Apa pointed out that Sprouse wasn’t “sitting next” to Reinhart in an Instagram photo shared by their castmate Camila Mendes. “@kjapa they must’ve broken up,” Reinhart quipped in the comments at the time. 

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November 2018

The couple hit a relationship milestone in November 2018 after the former child star traveled home to Cleveland with Reinhart for Thanksgiving. 

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February 2019

Sprouse praised Reinhart on Valentine’s Day in 2019. “Quite actually the only thing keeping me sane is @lilireinhart,” he captioned a photo of his girlfriend via Instagram. Reinhart, for her part, shared a photo of the twosome, writing,  “You make me very happy. Happy Valentine’s Day, my love.”

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March 2019

The pair looked so in love at the premiere of Sprouse’s film Five Feet Apart in March 2019.

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July 2019

After nearly two years together, multiple sources confirmed to Us Weekly that Sprouse and Reinhart had split. While at a 2019 Comic-Con party that month, the actor was overheard telling a pal he and the actress had broken up, but the former couple remained cordial as they attended a Riverdale panel together.

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September 2019

Two months after their breakup, Reinhart confirmed that she and Sprouse are back together. She also revealed that the two are planning couples costumes for Halloween.

"I think I'm leaning in towards a character for Halloween," she told Coveteur. "I think I'm going to do it with my boyfriend, Cole. I don't want to spoil it if it's not going to happen, but it's a TV duo."

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September 2019

A week after Reinhart confirmed that the lovebirds were back together, Sprouse gushed about his girlfriend on her birthday. “Lil @lilireinhart was born on a Friday the 13th and haven’t I just been so lucky ever since?” the former Disney Channel star wrote via Instagram on September 13, 2019, alongside a collage of four photos kissing and playing around with his love.

Credit: Courtesy of Lili Reinhart/Instagram

November 2019

In November, the Cover Girl spokesperson shared a series of photos with her man via Instagram, putting their lovey-dovey romance on display for the first time since their summer breakup. “The sequel,” Reinhart captioned the since-deleted photos, one of which showed her kissing Sprouse.

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February 2020

Days after sparking split rumors for accidentally “unfollowing” her beau on Instagram due to a “glitch,” Reinhart and Sprouse attended the Vanity Fair Oscars 2020 party together. They didn’t walk the carpet with each other, but the costars were photographed together inside the bash.

In the photo published by Vanity Fair online, the duo was seen walking during the event. Sprouse was holding onto his drink while carrying his date’s glass of champagne in his other hand. He looked back at Reinhart who was holding her gown as she followed him.

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April 2020

The Five Feet Apart actor shut down rumors on April 19, 2020, that he was seeing Kaia Gerber, after fans speculated that he and Reinhart had split. “I tolerate a lot of rumors and slander from people online claiming to be my fans,” Sprouse wrote on his Instagram Stories. “But attacking my friends, baseless accusations, leaking my address and sending death threats are all qualities of insanity and fanaticism. Choose humanity, stop being :clown_face:.”

He continued, “When I first stepped into a public relationship this was one of the foreseeable consequences. And while I truly never intended to indulge any part of my private life to the ravenous horde, it’s clear my restraint in updating them has allowed them to push their own agenda onto my habits and lifestyle.” Sprouse concluded by inviting haters to “please eat my delectable plump ass.”

The same week, Reinhart clapped back at online haters seemingly commenting on the rumors of her beau being with another woman. “Twitter is actually the most toxic form of social media,” she wrote in a since-deleted post. “People are a–holes for the sake of being a–holes. Do you not understand karma? It’s fine if you don’t, you’ll understand when it bites your miserable ass.”

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May 2020

Less than one year after rekindling their romance, Page Six reported that the costars had recently called it quits once more and were quarantining separately amid the coronavirus pandemic. News of their breakup came shortly after Skeet Ulrich, who plays Sprouse's dad on the CW series, was asked about the former couple during an Instagram Live.

"I think they were a very cute couple," Ulrich said on the livestream. His girlfriend, Megan Blake Irwin, added, "They were a very cute couple. They're both beautiful people."

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August 2020

Reinhart spoke out about their “f—king rough” split for the first time in August 2020.

“[The breakup was like a] black tunnel [that] was never going to end,” she told Elle. “I couldn’t see the light. I was like, ‘I feel like I’m dying.’ …  I’ve seen a lot of people when it comes to heartache and grief and breakups, and they try to get that void filled with sex, with coke, with food, with drinking, [but] the void is still there. I took the road less traveled and just dealt with my s—t. I had to face my own pain head-on.”

Reinhart told the magazine that the months following the split were “the most emotional” of her life. "And my therapist [told] me, ‘Your body's going through withdrawal from love,” she said. “You're used to having this exchange of happy chemicals between you and the person that you're with.’ In moments of my life, I have dropped every ounce of pride that I had just to be like, Love me. Please take the pain away for a day, a second, an hour, just so I can feel that fix again."

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March 2022

During a rare interview with GQ Hype, Sprouse called his past relationship with Reinhart "as real as it gets."

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March 2023

"It was really hard," the actor said in a preview of his "Call Her Daddy" episode, referring to working with an ex. "I know we both did quite a bit of damage to each other."

Elsewhere in the podcast, Sprouse revealed he was cheated on "by almost every single one" of his ex-girlfriends.

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August 2023

Ahead of the Riverdale series finale, Sprouse reflected on the mayhem he experienced after he and Reinhart split. “I get a lot of stuff sent to my house or my loved ones’ houses,” he told Vulture. “Death threats, really nasty, honestly criminal stuff.”

Sprouse attributed the strange gifts to his former relationship with his castmate. “I do think it’s because at least four of us at this table have dated our coworkers,” he continued. “Is that just a consequence of an incredible love? Or is that what fanaticism looks like? Perhaps because those lines were blurred to our audience, it’s hard to break those things up when life moves on.”

Sprouse and Reinhart were one of two couples that started on Riverdale and later fizzled out off camera. Costars Camila Mendes and Charles Melton dated from 2018 to 2019.