From Love to Awkward Silences: Madelyn Cline Opens Up About the Real Challenges of Acting with Chase Stokes After Heartbreak

The Outer Banks co-stars broke up in 2021, but still play love interests on the Netflix show.

Outer Banks co-stars Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes have opened up about what it was like playing couple Sarah and John B on-screen, after they broke up in real life.

Madelyn and Chase started dating after filming the first season of Outer Banks in 2020, and broke up toward the end of 2021, a few months after the release of Outer Banks season 2. But while they parted ways in real life, their characters are still romantically involved in the show.

Based on the season 3 trailer, it looks like Sarah and John B team up together, and they’re still very much in love with each other, too. Of course, that meant Madelyn and Chase had to work together intimately.

Now, ahead of the release of Outer Banks season 3, Madelyn has opened up about what it was like working with Chase on season 3.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Madelyn explained that she and Chase were on good terms and professional about the whole thing, when asked whether it had been awkward working opposite him in the latest season.

“We always said that the job remains untouched,” she said. “Nothing else, personal or negative, will touch the job. And while that’s not always easy, our job is to leave the show better than we found it, to leave the season better than we found it. And I’m really appreciative of that.”

Addressing her break up and the public interest surrounding the whole thing, Madelyn added: “My thing is, I don’t owe anyone an explanation. I am a really private person. There’s a part of me that is for me and nobody else.”

“But in hindsight, duh, making my relationship public made it everybody else’s business,” she continued. “And I realized the negative side effects of that while going through the breakup, realizing I had let people in and then felt like I couldn’t get anybody out.”

“It just hit me like a freight train. I wanted us both to move on and be happy. People see the need for sides. There are no sides—there’s no winning or losing in a breakup.”

In another interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chase also opened up about his experience working with Madelyn on the new season.

“Mads and I have been working together now for 30 episodes, and we made a promise to each other before we even started dating that the work was always going to come first,” he said. “And that no matter what happens in our personal lives, and the ways that life sometimes takes you in different directions, that we’re always going to honor the work. That stayed 100 percent truthful this season.”