Cole Sprouse Addresses Backlash From Break-Up With Riverdale Co-Star
Cole Sprouse has addressed the backlash he received following his break-up with Riverdale co-star, Lili Reinhart. Sprouse began his career as a child actor, starring in projects such as Friends, Big Daddy, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. However, beginning in 2011, he took a hiatus from acting, during which he graduated college with his brother, Dylan, and worked briefly in the field of archaeology. The year 2017 marked his return to acting with his role as Jughead in Riverdale.
Riverdale is a TV series adaption of the popular Archie Comics that premiered on The CW on January 26, 2017. The series follows Archie Andrew (KJ Apa) and his gang of friends as they navigate the perils of high school, while also exploring Riverdale's dark mysteries. The series has been renewed for season 7, which some Riverdale stars predict will be its last. Sprouse and Reinhart have starred in the series as Jughead and Betty Cooper, respectively, since the show's inception in 2017. The two co-stars dated for about three years, before announcing their split in 2020.
In an interview with GQ Hype, Sprouse opened up about receiving backlash from his break-up with Reinhart. Sprouse wanted to clarify that his relationship with Reinhart was "as real as it gets" despite all the media attention. Once they broke up, he felt forced to announce the split on social media due to the amount of hate he was receiving from fans, some of whom took to reporting him to brands he worked with. The backlash continues to this day, however, with Sprouse revealing he can't post anything about his current relationship with Ari Fournier, without it being reported by followers. Check out his statement below:
Followers report everything about Ari and me as bullying, and it gets taken down pretty immediately. Even on my other friends' accounts, it gets taken down.
The backlash that Sprouse has faced is surprising, considering he and Reinhart did their best to keep their relationship private. Aside from the now-deleted post in which they announced their break-up, the two have almost completely refrained from speaking of their relationship or break-up. Meanwhile, Sprouse's break-up post was very supportive of Reinhart, and indicated no lasting hard feelings. The two still star together in Riverdale and have also both continued to branch out in their careers. It doesn't seem the past relationship weighs heavily on their minds, making it very odd that Sprouse has received such intense backlash for the break-up.
While the reasoning behind such backlash towards Sprouse is difficult to understand, it is not quite an isolated incident. It is actually becoming quite common for fans to become far too invested in celebrity relationships, especially among younger stars such as Sprouse and Reinhart. Many fans tend to romanticize celebrity relationships and are subsequently heartbroken when such relationships end. For example, since rumors swirled that Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo broke up, both have been slammed with intense gossip and scrutiny, despite there being no confirmation the two ever even dated. Due to the romanticizing of celebrity relationships, fans fail to realize that it is perfectly normal for those relationships to end and for new ones to begin. The backlash Riverdale's Sprouse has received is a shocking look into the intense scrutiny that celebrities face, especially when it comes to their private relationships.
Source: GQ Hype