EmotionalGetting Real! Exes Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart Candid Quotes About Their 2020 Split

Breakup Confirmation

“Lili and I initially separated in January of this year, deciding to more permanently split in March,” said Cole wrote on Instagram in August 2020. “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.”

Post-Breakup ‘Void’

Lili described the period after her breakup with Cole as a “black tunnel [that] was never going to end,” during a an interview with Refinery29 from August 2020.

“I couldn’t see the light. I was like, I feel like I’m dying,” she told the publication. “I’ve seen a lot of people when it comes to heartache and grief and breakups, and they try to get that void filled with sex, with coke, with food, with drinking, [but] the void is still there. I took the road less traveled and just dealt with my shit. I had to face my own pain head-on.”

‘As Real As It Gets’

Cole explained that his relationship with Lili was “as real as it gets” during an interview with GQ Hype in March 2022. However, he added that the romance had “all this public currency,” and that the only reason he announced their split on social media was because “he felt forced to.”

Where They Stand Now

“It was hard to suspend all the ways we felt about each other and it didn’t afford us the luxury of distance to really overcome that. I know we both did quite a bit of damage to each other. We’re good friends now, which is awesome,” Cole shared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in March 2023.

“I think if I had loved myself a little more, I probably would have left [my relationship with Lili] a little earlier,” Cole admitted, saying they felt “a lot of pressure” during their romance. “I just felt like I had to take care of a lot of people around me, which was not good for me. I probably should have exercised a bit more selfishness in that situation.”

Breakup Backlash

The Disney Channel alum opened up to Vulture about his experience splitting with his Riverdale costar in August 2023.

“I get a lot of stuff sent to my house or my loved ones’ houses. Death threats, really nasty, honestly criminal stuff,” Cole told the outlet. “And I do think it’s because at least four of us at this table have dated our coworkers,” he said. “Is that just a consequence of an incredible love? Or is that what fanaticism looks like? Perhaps because those lines were blurred to our audience, it’s hard to break those things up when life moves on.”