Breaking It Down‘Kissing Booth’ Costars Jacob Elordi and Joey King’s Relationship and Breakup Timeline

Early 2017

Although the exact date that the relationship started is unclear, the two stars fell for each other while filming The Kissing Booth in early 2017. And Joey later opened up about falling for her costar!

“Was it love at first sight? 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. But before long I started to realize, ‘Hey, I think I kind of like this person!’” the actress revealed to Bello Magazine. “It was such an interesting experience meeting your boyfriend on set because you spend so much time together and become so close so fast.”

April 2017

They made their love Instagram official in April 2017, when Jacob shared a PDA-filled snap of him and the actress to Instagram. She posted about him for the first time on her account in June 2017 (in honor of his birthday), but both posts have now been taken down.

They then stepped onto the red carpet for the first time as a couple in August 2017, when they attended the Hollywood premiere for the documentary In The Cosmos: Where We Come From, Where We Are, And Where We Are Going side by side, and boy, did they look amazing.

October 2017

When Halloween rolled around, they had coordinated costumes, and it was everything! They dressed up as Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, and totally rocked the looks.

December 2017

A few months later, in December 2017, they took a major step in their relationship when they headed to Australia (where Jacob is originally from) together. They celebrated the holidays in his home country, and based off their social media posts, it seriously seemed magical.

August 2018

At the 2018 Teen Choice Awards, Us Weekly asked the actress what it was like to date someone else in the public eye.

“You know what, actually it does help,” she told the outlet. “It helps to have somebody by your side, cheering you on, who knows what you’re going through and who’s been through it themselves.”
The actress also gushed over her beau to New York Times a few months later.
“It’s exciting for people to know what they saw on screen was real,” she said.
Vince Marcello, The Kissing Booth director and writer, also dished on the relationship. He added, “You never plan for that, you don’t expect it to happen, but they’re so great together, and it shows in every scene.”

November 2018

It’s unfortunately unclear what went wrong in the end, but in November 2018, fans noticed that they had deleted all of their old romantic snaps together.

Thank god I have my dog tho

— Joey King (@JoeyKing) November 16, 2018

Joey also tweeted, “Thank god I have my dog though,” on November 15, seemingly referring to the split.

March 2019

Then, in March 2019, Joey seemingly opened up about their breakup. She explained, “All you can really do at that point is shut your phone off and crawl into your sister’s bed and watch Friends with her. When you’re going through something and the world wants to go through it with you or to get every piece of detail from you about it, it’s really difficult. Some of these things are just meant for you.”

In July 2019, it appeared that the two stars had moved on. Jacob was also spotted kissing someone new. Yep, Cari Flowers — an American model who has worked with brands like Kylie Cosmetics, Forever 21, Victoria’s Secret and more — posted a series of pictures to her Instagram account, and one of them showed her and Jacob sharing in a big ol’ smooch.

Plus, Joey was spotted cozying up to The Act producer Steven Piet in September 2019.

October 2019

But things didn’t end there! The former couple had to reunite to film The Kissing Booth 2 together, and Joey even opened up about what it was like to work with her ex.

“It was crazy,” Joey admitted on the “Mood with Lauren Elizabeth” podcast, when asked about working with her ex. “It was a wild experience, but honestly, it was a really beautiful time because I learned a lot about myself and I grew as an actor, I grew as a person.”

As for having to kiss her ex-boyfriend, the brunette beauty added, “It was fine. It was good.”

“I am very much, like, a frickin’ huge fan of The Kissing Booth,” she continued. “I’m a fan of how it resonated with the world and it resonated with me. So going back and doing that and making the sacrifice, obviously, that everyone is thinking about — I’m not outwardly addressing, but what I’m kinda on the sly addressing — making those sacrifices was totally worth it.”

July 2020

Ahead of The Kissing Booth 2’s premiere, the two stars spoke about what it’s like to date in the public eye during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“For me, I’ve publicly gone through some things, privately gone through some things, it’s all about finding your balance, finding what makes you comfortable,” Joey said. “And it can be brutal, but you know happy endings do come to those who are patient.”

Jacob added that it initially “bothered” him that people would pay so much attention to his dating life.

“Just even the fact that somebody you don’t know knows your name could be quite disembodying. But then eventually, for me personally, it’s got nothing to do with me, you know,” he explained. “Imagine the store around the corner from where you are now. Whatever people are talking about is not your business, it’s kind of how it feels. Unfortunately, it just has my name involved in it but it literally has nothing to do with me. It just doesn’t affect the trajectory of my life. So I just kind of ignore it.”

July 2020

At the end of the movie, Netflix played a reel of hilarious bloopers from the movie, and in one of them, Joey got real about how he made himself emotional for some of his character’s crying scenes. Get this — the actor looked at old pictures of him and Joey together from when they were dating to make himself tear up!

IM SCREAMINGG JACOB WAS LOOKING AT OLD PHOTOS OF HIM AND JOEY TO GET EMOTIONAL FOR THE SCENE PLEASEEE #KissingBooth2 pic.twitter.com/DtdQM41GKl

— Jacquelyn✨|| #BIackLivesMatter (@Rapunzellifee) July 24, 2020

August 2020

While speaking to Cosmopolitan in August 2020, the actress spoke about working with Jacob on the sequel again.

“No one’s thinking to themselves, ‘That was easy,’ because it wasn’t. I’m sure people will analyze every movement and every detail. And you know what? Let them. But at the end of the day, I was just thrilled to be Elle Evans again… There’s so much I want to say. What’s the most, um, correct way to go about this? Elle Evans needs her Noah Flynn, and whatever that means for my personal life, I’ll do anything to make sure the story of my character who I care about so much is complete,” she said.

She also made it clear to Howard Stern on his radio show that she has no regrets about the relationship.

“I think it’s a good thing we dated in the first place. I learned the most I’ve ever learned in my life from him,” the brunette beauty explained.

Sigh, we really thought these two were going to be together forever.

August 2021

Jacob shared a sweet Kissing Booth memory with Joey on Instagram. “And one from the start @joeyking. Thank you all of you,” he captioned an Instagram Stories post.