In 2018, Joey King and Jacob Elordi starred in The Kissing Booth on Netflix. Their characters, Elle Evans and Noah Flynn, were basically the cutest onscreen couple ever — and viewers everywhere quickly became obsessed with the movie. Of course, after fans found out Joey and Jacob were dating in real life, the fandom grew even more!
In the beginning, their relationship was pretty much a Hollywood fairytale. “Well, I thought he was very cute when we first met, but it started as a friendship. Right away we were talking about gross things with each other,” Joey previously told Bello magazine.
“But before long I started to realize, ‘Hey, I think I kind of like this person!’ It was such an interesting experience meeting your boyfriend on set because you spend so much time together and become so close so fast,” the Act star continued. “We were spending 17 hours a day together, and all of us would hang out after work and watch movies together and stuff. It was great.”
After The Kissing Booth hit Netflix on May 11, 2018, Joey continued to gush over Jacob every chance she got — as did those who worked with the couple. “It’s exciting for people to know what they saw on screen was real,” the Summer ‘03 actress told The New York Times in July 2018.
“You never plan for that, you don’t expect it to happen, but they’re so great together, and it shows in every scene,” added Kissing Booth director, Vince Marcello.
Sadly, just like in the movies, young love sometimes comes to an end. In November 2018, Joey and Jacob quietly called it quits. Now, here’s where things get complicated. Due to the popularity of The Kissing Booth, Netflix gave The Kissing Booth 2 the green light in February 2019.
With that, Joey and Jacob returned to their roles as Elle and Noah — except this time, as exes! To learn more about what filming was like for them and see a complete timeline of their relationship, scroll through the gallery below.