No regrets. Joey King is grateful for her past relationship with her Kissing Booth costar Jacob Elordi because she learned valuable life lessons from her ex-boyfriend.
The Act star, 21, opened up about her previous romance with Elordi, 23, during the Tuesday, August 11, episode of The Howard Stern Show.
“I think it’s a good thing we dated in the first place,” King said. “I learned the most I’ve ever learned in my life from him.”
She added that the relationship helped her to realize that she isn’t interested in pursuing someone with the same career path.
“No. I couldn’t,” King said when asked if she would date another actor again. “I think that it’s awesome to date someone in your field, who gets it, but doing the same exact thing as somebody is tough. It’s really tough.”
The Golden Globe Award nominee also addressed her recent tweet calling out the Australia native for saying that he hasn’t seen The Kissing Booth 2, which premiered in July.
“I haven’t seen it,” he told Variety on Thursday, August 6. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I haven’t.”
Later that day, King poked fun at Elordi in a since-deleted tweet writing, “Jacob watched it. He’s capping.”
The California native explained on Howard Stern that she received permission from the actor to post the tweet but chose to take it down after receiving criticism from fans.
“I said, ‘Jacob watched it. He’s capping.’ Which, ‘capping’ means lying. I heard the term ‘capping’ on, like, TikTok and Twitter and Instagram, through friends, and I was like, ‘I guess this is the new thing,” King explained.
She continued, “Apparently, it’s not. It’s something I should not have used as a white person. I took it down … two accounts on Twitter called me out for it, that’s why I deleted it.”
King and Elordi began dating in 2017 after they were cast as love interests Elle Evans and Noah Flynn in the 2018 Netflix film The Kissing Booth. The pair called it quits in 2018 but reunited the following year to film the sequels The Kissing Booth 2 and The Kissing Booth 3, which will premiere in 2021.
The Conjuring star told Cosmopolitan in her September 2020 cover story that filming with her ex was difficult.
“No one’s thinking to themselves, ‘That was easy,’ because it wasn’t,” King said. “I’m sure people will analyze every moment and every detail. And you know what? Let them.”
King added that she decided to put her personal feelings aside for the sake of the story.
“There’s so much I want to say. What’s the most, um, correct way to go about this?” she said. “Elle Evans needs her Noah Flynn, and whatever that means for my personal life, I’ll do anything to make sure the story of my character who I care about so much is complete.”
The Slender Man actress has been linked to producer Steven Piet — whom she met on the set of The Act — since September 2019. She also recently sparked speculation that she is dating her Kissing Booth 2 castmate Taylor Zakhar Perez. However, Perez, 28, shut down the rumors and insisted the twosome are just friends.
As for Elordi, Us Weekly broke the news in February that he’s dating his Euphoria costar Zendaya.
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