Life for the Riverdale cast hasn't always been milkshakes and musical numbers.
Cole Sprouse recently revealed the darker side of being involved with the beloved show—a byproduct of fans' deep investment in the actors' fictional characters and offscreen relationships. (He and costar Lili Reinhart dated from 2017 to 2020 while cast members Camila Mendes and Charles Melton dated for a year starting in 2018.)
"I get a lot of stuff sent to my house or my loved ones' houses," the 31-year-old told Vulture in a group interview with the show's cast published August 13. "Death threats, really nasty, honestly criminal stuff. And I do think it's because at least four of us at this table have dated our co-workers."
And while they were dating IRL, their characters were romantically intertwined onscreen: Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper, Cole and Lili's respective characters, were linked for several seasons while Camila's character Veronica Lodge briefly romances Charles' Reggie Mantle.
"Is that just a consequence of an incredible love?" Cole continued. "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."
This is not the first time the Suite Life alum has spoken to the public's perception of his offscreen relationships. In fact, Cole—who has been dating Ari Fournier since July 2021—previously detailed the public's reaction to his new relationship his breakup with Lili.
"I'm private with all my relationships—I'm private with my current relationship—in very many ways that we didn't make a big deal when we split," he told Alex Cooper during his March 8 appearance on Call Her Daddy. "So afterwards, I was photographed as a single man dating other women and I think it caused people to think there was something dubious going on."
And on his decision to maintain that privacy, he added, "I didn't think the public needed to be afforded the luxury of my own heartbreak or whatever the hell that was. But I'm realizing that that gray area created a lot of rumor and gossip that would end up affecting me and my mental health quite a bit afterwards."
So, what was it like for the two actors to continue to work together on The CW show after their split?
"It was really hard for both of us and that's okay," Cole explained. "I think the work thing got difficult because it was hard to suspend all the way 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 quite a bit of damage to each other."
But he also revealed that the two were able to navigate the post-split tension and come out the other side, , adding, "We're good friends now, which is awesome. We work really well together now."