'Riverdale' star Cole Sprouse explains Lili Reinhart breakup

Cole Sprouse gets real about working with Lili Reinhart on ‘Riverdale’ after breakup

A blond woman in a blue dress posing with a man with dark hair in a black suit

March 8, 2023 11:40 AM PT

Cole Sprouse recently opened up about his relationship with ex-girlfriend Lili Reinhart and described his experience working with his “Riverdale” co-star after they broke up.

On Wednesday’s episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Sprouse admitted it was initially “really hard” for both him and Reinhart to be on the set of the hit CW drama together after calling it quits in March 2020. The seventh and final season of “Riverdale” is scheduled to premiere later this month.

The actors — who play onscreen love interests Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper in the teen mystery series — dated publicly for about two years.

“The work thing got difficult because it was hard to suspend all of the way we felt about each other, and it didn’t afford us the luxury of distance to really overcome that,” Sprouse told “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper.

“We both did quite a bit of damage to each other ... We’re good friends now, which is awesome. We work really well together now.”

The former Disney Channel star explained that as a couple, he and Reinhart “leaned on each other” while navigating “a very intense” work schedule, “going through the elected trauma of this incredible overnight success” and dealing with “a ton of criticism.” He added that the relationship “absolutely” lasted longer because they were co-workers.

“That was exactly where we both need to be,” he continued.

“And I think we did the best we could. ... I’m very grateful in very many ways I was able to go through it with someone who was going through the exact same set of circumstances as me. But also in very many ways, all the cliches about dating someone you work with are very true.”

After the breakup, Sprouse “took a moral stance” and vowed that he “was never going to talk about it.” But when paparazzi photos of a newly single Sprouse mingling with other women ignited a wave of cheating rumors, he realized his error.

“I probably should have said something almost right away,” he mused.

“I didn’t think the public needed to be afforded the luxury of my own heartbreak — or whatever the hell that was. But ... that gray area created a lot of rumor and gossip that would end up affecting me and my mental health quite a bit afterwards. So in an inverse way, the silence and mystery ... created a fertile petri dish of bulls— that was my own mistake.”

Asked who dumped whom, Sprouse replied that the decision was “mutual.” But when Cooper pressed further, he divulged that he was the one who initiated the split.

“Yes, I left,” he said. “But to be honest, when you’re in a relationship for that long and someone leaves it’s ... not a surprise.”