Cline and Stokes, who play the inseparable Sarah and John B. on the treasure-hunting teen drama, dated during the series’ early years, from 2020 to 2021.

Madelyn Cline admits it could be ‘difficult’ playing a couple with Chase Stokes on Outer Banks post-breakup

Cline and Stokes, who play the inseparable Sarah and John B. on the treasure-hunting teen drama, dated during the series’ early years, from 2020 to 2021.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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August 20, 2026 7:48 p.m. ET

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Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline in ‘Outer Banks’ season 5, episode 5. Credit:

Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix

- Madelyn Cline is opening up about portraying a couple opposite Chase Stokes on *Outer Banks *after their 2021 breakup.

- “There were moments when it was difficult, absolutely” the actress said. “But once the dust kind of settled, we were able to just revert to the friendship that we always had.”

- Cline and Stokes play the inseparable lovers Sarah Cameron and John B. Routledge on the teen adventure drama, and dated during its first two seasons.

You’d never know Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes were no longer dating from their palpable chemistry on *Outer Banks*. But according to Cline, it was sometimes “difficult” to portray a couple after their 2021 breakup.

Cline and Stokes began filming on the teen mystery and adventure series in 2019, and dating rumors were already swirling by the time the series premiered on Netflix in April 2020. The couple confirmed their romance shortly thereafter, but then announced they’d gone their separate ways the following fall.

Though the relationship was brief in life, it’s a different story on screen.

Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes celebrate their ‘Best Kiss’ award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in Los Angeles in 2021.

Kevin Winter/2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards/Getty

Their star-crossed Sarah Cameron and John B. Routledge share their first kiss four episodes into season 1, and four seasons later are still going strong. Cline recently opened up about the experience of portraying a couple fresh off a breakup, and how things stand between her and Stokes now.

“There were moments when it was difficult, absolutely,” Cline told *The Hollywood Reporter** *on Thursday. “But once the dust kind of settled, we were able to just revert to the friendship that we always had. At some point, you look at each other and you’re like, ‘Are you ready to stop being miserable? Because I’m ready.’”

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Stokes confirmed that he and Cline were official in June 2020 — just two months after *Outer Banks *set out for its maiden voyage.

“Cats outta the bag,” he wrote on Instagram that month, accompanying a photo of the couple enjoying a beach day together.

“Well it’s about time,” their OBX costar Jonahtan Daviss snarkily commented.

The couple dated for over a year, with their relationship even getting the MTV seal of approval with the “Best Kiss” award at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which they accepted with a kiss.

The cast of ‘Outer Banks’ season 5.

Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix

Cline and Stokes broke up in November 2021. Neither member of the former couple have spoken much about the end of the affair, even as they moved on to new horizons (Stokes was in an on-and-off relationship with Kelsea Ballerini for years, and Cline is currently dating real estate agent Michael Reyes).

But they opened up about their post-breakup, on-set dynamic in a 2023 interview with **.

“Mads and I have been working together now for 30 episodes, and we made a promise to each other before we even started dating that the work was always going to come first,” Stokes shared.

Cline agreed, adding, “We had a working relationship before we had a personal relationship, and our job from day one has always been to leave the show better than we found it.”

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