Amid fan concerns that Outer Banks stars Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey had a falling out, she had nothing but kind words about his work on the show. In a video where the cast reflected on Rudy’s character, JJ’s, death in the season 4 finale, the actress even got visibly emotional.

“We all read the character on the page and we know what you brought to it and you turned it out and really made something of it and paid respect to the depth of the character while bringing a lightheartedness that the show desperately needed,” Madison, 25, told Rudy, 26, while choking back tears.

Rudy and Madison – who plays JJ’s love interest, Kiara, in the Netflix series – made direct eye contact with each other as she sung his praises. The sweet moment came amid fans’ claims that the two were acting distant in interviews before the first part of season 4’s release in October.

Passionate Outer Banks viewers have accused Rudy and Madison’s offscreen girlfriends – Elaine Seimek and Mariah Linney, respectively – of allegedly creating a rift between the actors. Many fans believe that Rudy and Madison used stunt doubles in at least one romantic scene from season 4 that featured their characters cozying up next to a fire. The camera cutaways in the scene never show JJ and Kiara in the same frame, flashing back and forth between their faces instead.

Both young stars have defended their significant others against the critics in the past, although they’ve never addressed the rumors about offscreen drama directly. According to many eagle-eyed fans, things seemingly came to a boiling point during a cast dinner in June 2023, after which Madison and Elaine, 28, and Rudy and Mariah, 25, allegedly unfollowed each other on Instagram.

Is Rudy Pankow Leaving Outer Banks JJs Death and More Clues

Life & Style has reached out to reps for Madison and Rudy for comment but received no response as of publication.

Fans were devastated by JJ’s death in the season 4 finale, which set up a season 5 storyline for Kiara and the rest of the Pogues to get revenge on Chandler Groff, the man who killed him. Outer Banks showrunners confirmed earlier this month that the series will end with season 5.

While cocreator Jonas Pate said, “Never say never,” regarding the potential for JJ to return “in some form,” the character’s death was something that writers had been planning for a while now. “We thought one of the Pogues would die almost in the very beginning in season 1, and we were pretty sure it was going to be JJ,” Shannon Burke told Cosmopolitan. “We just weren’t sure when we were going to play that card. We knew this would be JJ’s season. This is JJ’s story. And we realized pretty early on, like, ‘OK, we’re going to play this card now.’”

Fans who believe that Madison and Rudy had a falling out are convinced that Rudy asked to leave the show, leading to JJ’s untimely death, but showrunner Josh Pate reiterated in an interview with Tudum that the storyline was essential to the show.

“It was a really hard decision because he’s such a great piece of the ensemble,” Josh explained. “It sets the stage for an epic fifth and final season. We’re planning a story of redemption and a season that embodies the friendship that JJ had come to represent. JJ’s death was a hard but necessary piece of the architecture for the story and we plan on honoring that as much as we can because we love the character as much as the fans do.”