What happens on the dude ranch doesn't always stay on the dude ranch.
In news that's sure to send nostalgic Nickelodeon fans into a frenzy, Hey Dude co-stars Christine Taylor and David Lascher recently admitted they had an IRL romance when filming the '90s sitcom.
"You were my first real love and it was full of teen angst and all you can imagine," David recalled to the actress on the Dec. 12 mini-episode of the Hey Dude... The 90's Called! podcast. "We get asked this all the time, and we're like, 'No, nobody dated.'"
Christine explained that David was her "second boyfriend" and admitted that the two were "head over heels for each other" off-screen.
"It was total infatuation for sure," she said. "He was my first love and I was so infatuated with you, and loved you so much."
She added, "We didn't own it at that point. Now I think we just have to own it."
Hey Dude, which aired for five seasons between 1989 and 1991 centered around a group of teenagers who worked at the fictional Bar None Dude Ranch in Arizona. Christine, 51, played bubbly blonde lifeguard Melody Hanson, while David, 50, portrayed the good-looking, but always into trouble Ted McGriff. (The show can currently be streamed on Paramount+)
"We would just make fun of everything and everyone in a lighthearted way," David remembered. "We just laughed for two years straight.
However, the young romance ultimately fizzled. Christine said they "kept trying to find our way back to each other" after their split, but eventually the pair realized the relationship had run its course.
"I think it was the fact that we were working together and living together in this hotel, we were with each other 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that's not how young love thrives," she explained. "You need space to be your own person."
The exes were forced to continue working together, which Christine admitted "was not fun." She also took responsibly for the split calling herself "terrible" for the way she handled things.
"I was so non-confrontational," The Brady Bunch Movie star noted. "I probably had no idea how to talk or deal with it. How great is it we can unpack it now?"
But David let her off the hook during the podcast, assuring her there were no hard feelings.
"Everyone has that first love that crushes them, at some point, even though it wasn't intentional," the Sabrina the Teenage Witch alum told his costar. "You and I had a friendship that was above and beyond anything else. I think the friendship was more important, looking back on it, right? We had such great times together that whatever went on outside of that was less important."
So what made them spill the beans after more than 30 years? It was surprisingly David's wife Jill London who encouraged the two to talk about their teenage fling.
"We talked about this last night," Christine explained. "Jill was like, 'You should talk about this, you should talk about the fact that you dated while you were shooting the show,' which we've never talked about before."
Her ex admitted, "I was nervous to even ask you if you wanted to talk about it, but we are both happily married and we are adults."
David tied the knot with Jill—with whom he shares two kids—in 1999, while Christine has been married to Ben Stiller since 2020 and share daughter Ella, 20, and son Quinn, 17.
Hey Dude... The 90's Called!, which will look back on the decade's biggest trends and pop culture moments, premieres its first full episode on iHeartRadio Jan. 9.