Madelyn Cline Says Playing Chase Stokes’ On-Screen Girlfriend After Their Breakup Could Be ‘Difficult’

Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes celebrate their ‘Best Kiss’ award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in Los Angeles in 2021.

Madelyn Cline is reflecting on what it was really like to continue playing the romantic partner of her ex-boyfriend Chase Stokes on Outer Banks after their real-life relationship came to an end.

The two actors have spent years portraying one of the Netflix series’ central couples, Sarah Cameron and John B. Routledge, whose romance has remained a major part of the treasure-hunting drama since its first season. Off screen, however, Cline and Stokes’ relationship followed a very different path.

Cline recently acknowledged that returning to work alongside Stokes after their breakup was not always easy.

“There were moments when it was difficult, absolutely,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Thursday.

Still, Cline said that once the emotional fallout from the breakup began to settle, the two actors were eventually able to return to the friendship they had shared before becoming romantically involved.

“But once the dust kind of settled, we were able to just revert to the friendship that we always had,” she explained.

According to Cline, there came a point when both of them recognized that continuing to carry the emotional weight of the breakup was no longer productive.

“At some point, you look at each other and you’re like, ‘Are you ready to stop being miserable? Because I’m ready,’” she recalled.

Their Romance Began During the Early Days of Outer Banks

Cline and Stokes first began working together when production on Outer Banks started in 2019.

By the time the series premiered on Netflix in April 2020, viewers had already begun speculating that the chemistry between the two actors might extend beyond their performances.

Those rumors were confirmed only a couple of months later.

In June 2020, Stokes publicly announced that he and Cline were dating. He shared photos of the two spending time together at the beach and wrote, “Cats outta the bag.”

Their Outer Banks costar Jonathan Daviss responded playfully in the comments, writing, “Well it’s about time.”

The announcement arrived just two months after Outer Banks made its Netflix debut and quickly turned Cline and Stokes into one of the show’s most closely followed real-life couples.

Their romance also intensified fan interest in their characters.

On Outer Banks, Sarah and John B. first kiss during the fourth episode of the first season. Their relationship quickly becomes central to the series as they navigate family conflicts, dangerous treasure hunts and a long list of increasingly dramatic obstacles.

Even several seasons later, Sarah and John B. remain deeply connected on screen.

Their Real-Life Relationship Lasted More Than a Year

Cline and Stokes dated publicly for more than a year.

During that time, their off-screen romance frequently overlapped with the popularity of Sarah and John B.’s relationship.

One of the most memorable moments came during the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, when the pair won the award for Best Kiss.

While accepting the honor, Cline and Stokes kissed on stage, giving fans another moment in which their real-life relationship appeared almost inseparable from their Outer Banks characters.

However, later that year, their relationship came to an end.

Cline and Stokes broke up in November 2021 after more than a year together.

Neither actor has shared extensive details about exactly what caused the split, and both have generally kept discussions of their breakup relatively private.

The circumstances were especially unusual because, unlike many former couples, Cline and Stokes could not simply move into separate professional environments.

Their characters were still in love.

As a result, the actors had to continue filming intimate and emotional scenes together while adjusting to the end of their personal relationship.

Work Had Always Come First

Cline’s latest comments are consistent with what both actors have previously said about maintaining professionalism on set.

In a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Stokes explained that he and Cline had made an important agreement even before their romance began.

“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 at the time.

For Stokes, that promise helped establish boundaries between their relationship as coworkers and whatever was happening between them personally.

Cline expressed a similar view.

“We had a working relationship before we had a personal relationship,” she said, adding that their goal from the beginning was “to leave the show better than we found it.”

That shared commitment became particularly important after their breakup.

While Sarah and John B. continued navigating an intense romantic storyline, the actors portraying them had to separate their personal history from the demands of the show.

Cline now admits that the process occasionally became emotionally challenging, but she suggests that time ultimately helped the former couple find a workable balance.

Their On-Screen Chemistry Continued

For many viewers, the shift in Cline and Stokes’ real-life relationship has barely been visible on screen.

Their characters’ chemistry continued despite the breakup, with Sarah and John B. remaining one of the emotional anchors of Outer Banks.

That distinction between fiction and reality is particularly striking because the actors were essentially required to continue portraying the romantic closeness that no longer existed in their personal lives.

By Cline’s account, reaching a place where that felt manageable required both actors to move beyond the immediate emotions associated with their split.

Once they did, she said, they were able to rediscover the friendship that had existed before they began dating.

Her comments also suggest that their professional relationship ultimately became more sustainable once they stopped allowing the breakup itself to define their interactions.

The cast of ‘Outer Banks’ season 5.

Both Have Since Moved Forward Personally

Since ending their relationship, both Cline and Stokes have continued with their personal lives while remaining costars.

Stokes later entered a highly publicized relationship with singer Kelsea Ballerini. Their romance lasted for years and reportedly went through periods of separation and reconciliation.

Cline, meanwhile, is currently dating real estate agent Michael Reyes.

Despite moving into different relationships, Cline and Stokes have remained professionally connected through Outer Banks.

That connection is unusual even by Hollywood standards. Many actors work with former partners, but Cline and Stokes have had the added challenge of playing two characters whose romantic relationship remains central to a long-running television series.

The experience appears to have required a deliberate separation between their private lives and their responsibilities as actors.

For Cline, that did not mean pretending that everything was easy.

Her latest remarks make clear that there were difficult moments, particularly in the period immediately following their breakup.

At the same time, she describes the relationship between herself and Stokes today in considerably less dramatic terms.

Rather than remaining defined by their history as a couple, they were eventually able to return to the friendship and professional partnership they had before their romance began.

Years after their real-life relationship ended, Sarah Cameron and John B. Routledge are still together on Outer Banks.

Cline and Stokes are not.

Yet their ability to keep those two realities separate has allowed one of the series’ most recognizable relationships to continue — even after the actors behind it had already gone their separate ways.