Over the weekend, multiple reports surfaced that the couple of nearly two years had broken up.
Lili Reinhart is clapping back at the breakup reports.
On Thursday, the 22-year-old actress took to Instagram to reveal that she and Cole Sprouse are profiled in W magazine's latest issue. Her post comes after multiple reports surfaced claiming that Reinhart and Sprouse had called it quits after nearly two years of dating.
Alongside a sexy image from the magazine shoot, which labels the pair as "screen saviors," Reinhart quipped, "BREAKING: A reliable source has confirmed that none of you know sh**."
Sprouse, 26, posted the same image, which features him shirtless as he stands behind Reinhart with his thumb resting on her lip, and had a witty remark of his own.
"UNPRECEDENTED: Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart consume the flesh of ‘reliable sources’ to fuel their bacchanalian sex cult," Sprouse wrote.
Hours later, Reinhart took to Twitter and wrote: "Don’t believe everything you read on the internet, kids. And news sources should try a little harder to be less vile. 'Reliable sources' can kiss my ass."
Despite their posts that seem to dispute the rampant breakup speculation, the Riverdale co-stars' W profile, for which interviews were conducted back in May, noted that the pair "would part ways romantically" two months after sitting down for the separate interviews for the feature.
Though Sprouse and Reinhart's decision to do their W interviews separately could suggest that they were already experiencing relationship woes in May, both of them rejected that connection at the time.
"We’re not fighting with the idea that people group us together, but we are paired up a lot," Reinhart explained. "We’re acknowledging that we’re in a relationship, but it’s a small part of who we are as people. We want our own separate identities."
"Lili is an incredibly talented individual who speaks for herself and deserves her own voice box in every single way," Sprouse agreed. "That alone is justification enough for me to do it like this. I don’t think we’re weaving two different narratives here."
The pair also discussed their attempts to keep their private lives private and their reasons behind doing so.
"At first, I didn’t want things private. Now that I’m X amount of years in, I do appreciate the privacy we have, that he’s encouraged me to take," Reinhart said of Sprouse. "No one knows how long we’ve been together, and no one will until we’re ready to say it. No one knows how we fell in love, except for our close friends and us. It’s really special."
"Until you go through the paces and the dating stages and know that something is right for you, I don’t think it’s appropriate to bring others in," Sprouse agreed, before referencing the onscreen romance between their characters, Betty and Jughead.
"I think part of the fun that the audience had, and still has, is going: What’s up with them right now? It’s interesting!" Sprouse said. "But in all honesty, my own happiness and her happiness come before caring about what people are saying."
For the feature, both Sprouse and Reinhart reflected on their Riverdale fame and how their lives had changed since appearing on the CW series.
"Only three years ago, I was eating $2 hot dogs from 7-Eleven every day," Reinhart said. "I applied to Urban Outfitters and a tanning salon before I booked Riverdale. It’s not like I’m used to this life."
"When I was younger, I was always attempting to create a semblance of home or confidence or validation or whatever it was through work," Sprouse, who was a child star, explained. "Now I’m in a place where I’m chasing a lifestyle."
The duo also discussed how they handle social media scrutiny, which is something they both dislike for different reasons. For Reinhart, it's her anxiety that makes her question her online presence, while Sprouse questions how his internet persona affects potential roles.
"I don’t handle it super well," Reinhart said. "I am a very paranoid person now because of it. I watch people watching me. I look at their faces to see if they’re looking at me, if they know who I am. It’s not because I want to be recognized; I’m just trying to prepare myself. It can be startling when they come up to you when you’re not expecting it."
"Now people are concerned about how many eyes and butts in seats they can get, according to some illusory extrapolation gleaned from your social-media numbers," Sprouse lamented. "It’s complicated. Reinforcing the myth of yourself can be detrimental for actors. I think it destroys the mystery of you as a chameleon. Our show really capitalizes on that, but I’m conflicted about it."
Despite her own admission that she is sometimes "exhausted by" her job on Riverdale, at the time of the May interview, Reinhart appeared eager to reunite with her castmates to film season four of the show.
"Luckily, I love the people I work with," she said of the cast, which includes Sprouse, Camila Mendes, KJ Apa and others. "I can’t imagine how miserable I’d be if I hated them."
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