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With lots of time spent together on set, it’s no surprise that many celebrities that work together start having feelings for each other. The tricky part is when those feelings fade and the celebs are stuck working together on joint projects.
Working with your ex sounds like a nightmare–and for many actors it is, especially when their onscreen characters have relationships that mimic their own.
Keep reading for 8 celebrity couples who had to work together on camera after their breakup–and try not to cringe too hard at the awkwardness!
Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder
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Nina and Ian met while working together on The Vampire Diaries, and their chemistry onscreen translated to an offscreen romance as well. Although the couple broke up in 2013, they still worked together for another couple of years on the show.
In 2015, Nina commented on their working relationship to E! News, “I’ve said this before, that we didn’t break up because anything bad happened or because there wasn’t love or friendship. I love him and the friendship is still strong and I think he’s great and I care about him. And that didn’t change. Yes, we’re professional and that’s fine. We were friends long before we dated and we still are now.”
Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper
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Amanda and Dominic met each other on the set of the first Mamma Mia movie where they played an onscreen couple. They began dating in 2007, but split in 2011.
They reunited in 2018 for Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, and their characters were still together in the film, making for an awkward reunion between the exes, which Cooper described as a “delicate” situation.
He told Attitude, “She’s a friend. It was always going to be OK. You just have to be delicate with those situations.”
Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak
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Mindy and B.J. have openly talked about their on-again, off-again relationship, and even said that their own situation was mirrored in the storyline for their characters in The Office.
Novak also guest starred on Mindy’s show The Mindy Project, playing her love interest. Despite the potential for awkwardness, the two are best friends now.
Speaking about their relationship to PEOPLE in 2015, Mindy said, “I will freely admit: My relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell. He is not my boyfriend, but he is not my best friend. I guess you could describe our relationship as a ‘romantically charged camaraderie with loud arguments,’ but I don’t think Facebook would accept this as a new status.”
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart
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Robert and Kristen met on the set of Twilight, and their chemistry immediately led to romance rumors.
The movie came out in 2008. However, it wasn’t until 2011 that they confirmed their romantic relationship. Unfortunately, in 2012, Kristen was caught cheating with the married director of another project she was working on, Snow White and the Huntsmen.
The actress issued an apology at the time with a special message for Rob: “I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I’ve caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected. This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.”
Their split made for an awkward press tour for the final installment of the Twilight movies, Breaking Dawn Part 2, and it was reported that the two could not be in the same room together.
Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse
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Lili and Cole met on the set of their show Riverdale and reportedly started dating in 2017, but the two officially split earlier this year. However, they’ll still be playing opposite one another as their characters, Betty and Jughead.
The actor confirmed the breakup rumors on Instagram; Cole captioned a photo of Lili: “Lili and I initially separated in January of this year, deciding to more permanently split in March. 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.”
Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush
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Chad and Sophia’s divorce made filming One Tree Hill together awkward. The two called it quits just five months after getting married after rumors that Chad cheated on his new wife with Paris Hilton.
As if that wasn’t rough enough, according to Sophia, the producers made a point of incorporating the more devastating details of their personal lives into plot lines for their characters tumultuous relationship on the show.
While on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, she explained, “[The producers] were really deeply inappropriate to both of us about it. They ran like TV ads about it. It was really ugly. They made practice of taking advantage of people’s personal lives — and not just for me and for my ex, for other actors on the show who would share deeply personal things that were happening in their lives. They would wind up in storylines. It wasn’t OK. I imagine that was hard for [Chad] as well. It was a very ugly situation, on their part.”
Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian
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Scott and Kourtney’s relationship went from romantic to friendly during their time on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and the two of them have navigated co-parenting their three children together on camera.
They had an on-again, off-again relationship for around nine years before splitting up for good in 2015. In a 2016 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Kourtney explained their new status: “Well, we’re not together. I feel like every day is different, but we’re totally getting along. Like, we have three beautiful kids together…But, you know, he’s family. He’ll always be.”
There have been some rumors that a romantic reconciliation could be happening soon for the two of them, but they have not been confirmed.
Blake Lively and Penn Badgley
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Blake and Penn played each other’s romantic interests on Gossip Girl, and although their characters got a happy ending, the reality for these co-stars was less of a fairytale. The two of them split in 2010, but they continued to work together until the show finale in 2012.
As for what it was like to work with an ex, Badgley told Andy Cohen the truth of how it went down on Watch What Happens Live in 2015. When asked about his best onscreen kiss, the actor answered, “I’d say best . . . I’ll say it was Blake, because we actually had a relationship at the time.”
However, he also said his worst kiss was “maybe Blake after we broke up.”
Although it might have been awkward, Badgley also commended him and Blake for handling it maturely. He continued, “We should both pat ourselves on the back because anything is complicated in that way . . . and we handled it.”
