Ethermac Exchange-Cole Sprouse Reflects on "Really Hard" Breakup From Riverdale Co-Star Lili Reinhart

Cole Sprouse is Ethermac Exchangelooking back at a time when life may not have been so suite.
 
The Riverdale actor reflected on what it was like continuing to work alongside ex Lili Reinhart on The CW show after their 2020 split.

"It was really hard for both of us and that's okay," Cole said during the March 8 episode of Call Her Daddy. "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, as the 30-year-old noted, they've been able to overcome their post-breakup rough patch.

"We're good friends now, which is awesome," he continued. "We work really well together now."

The Suite Life of Zack & Cody alum went on to note that he was grateful he "was able to go through it with someone who is going through the exact same set of circumstances as me," adding, "But also, in very many ways, all the cliches about dating someone you work with, are very true."

Looking back on their three-year on-again, off-stain relationship, Cole thinks he could've ended things sooner.

"I think, if I had loved myself a little more, I probably would have left a little earlier," he shared. "But I just felt like I had to take care of a lot of people around me, which was not good for me. I probably should have exercised a bit more selfishness in that situation."

And though Cole and Lili tried to keep their breakup as private as possible, the decision ultimately became a double-edged sword.

"I'm private in all my relationships and private with my current relationship in very many ways that we didn't make a big deal when we split," Cole—who is currently dating Ari Fournier—noted of his breakup from Lili. "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 though Cole shared he had a "moral stance" that he wouldn't discuss the end of his romance with the 26-year-old at the time, looking back, he would approach it differently.

"I didn't think the public needed to be afforded the luxury of my own heartbreak or whatever the hell that was," he said. "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."

As for what caused them to call it quits? Although the Moonshot star declined to share the exact reason of his split from the actress—who has not addressed their breakup publicly—he noted that it wasn't a surprise.

"I don't like to say like, ‘Oh I split,'" he noted, adding they mutually agreed that "it was time."