Jesse Metcalfe and Eva Longoria had a sweet reunion over two decades after their Desperate Housewives characters parted ways.
“Nothin’ like running into an old friend! Love you @evalongoria ❤️,” Metcalfe, 45, captioned a Monday, January 8, Instagram photo of himself and Longoria, 48, embracing.
Longoria reposted the snap via her own Instagram Story, writing, “Reunited in Vegas!”
Metcalfe and Longoria played John Rowland and Gabrielle Solis, respectively, on the ABC drama. Their characters had a steamy affair during season 1 as Gabrielle attempted to spice up her suburban life by seducing her teenage gardener, John.
Gabrielle’s then-husband, Carlos Solis (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), was often away on business and didn’t discover the betrayal until the dramatic season 1 finale, when Metcalfe delivered the memorable line, “Didn’t you think it was strange that you had the only lawn on Wisteria Lane that needed to be mowed three times a week?”
Desperate Housewives premiered in 2004 and Metcalfe made his last appearance on the show during season 6 in 2009, three years prior to the series finale in 2012.
Metcalfe and Longoria previously reconnected in August 2015.
“Look who I ran into today! My favorite gardner!!!! [sic] #DesperateHousewives #OneOfMyFavPeople,” Longoria captioned an Instagram photo of the pair at the time.
Metcalfe opened up about his dynamic with Longoria during an October 2020 interview with Hello! magazine.
“We don’t stay in that close in contact, but whenever we see each other it’s like not a day has gone by since we’ve seen each other,” he told the outlet. “She’s been such an awesome friend and we follow each other on social media and I see where she is and how she’s spending her time, and she just seems to love motherhood and I love watching her son grow up via Instagram.”
Longoria, who shares son Santiago, 5, with husband José Bastón, called her and Metcalfe’s onscreen romance “iconic” during a July 2023 interview with Entertainment Tonight. “People still come up to me and ask me, ‘Tell me about the gardener.’ I’m like, ‘Jesse’s amazing,’” she gushed.
The actress also noted that while she and Metcalfe’s characters had a big age gap, they’re nearly the same age in real life.
“He was 25 playing 16, and I was 27 playing 40. So, Jesse and I were actually the same age so we didn’t feel weird,” she said. “It was definitely much better chemistry and better for the story that it was Jesse.”
As for her other Desperate Housewives costars, Longoria shut down rumors that there was tension between the women in the cast during a November 2023 appearance on Dax Shephard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast.
“I remember even back then it was a narrative about women. Because there were all these shows with men on the air, and nobody was like, ‘They’re fighting!’” Longoria said before explaining that the cast was oblivious to outside drama.
“Anything that happened outside the show, we were like, ‘What?’ We could never come up for air to really get outside of ourselves,” she recalled. “We were only on the set. … I remember that noise being outside of us. We were in such a bubble with our crew and each other.”
