Why did The Kissing Booth's Joey King and Jacob Elordi break up and who are they dating now?

28 July 2020, 17:33 | Updated: 29 July 2020, 14:34

By Mared Parry

@maredparry

If you haven't already binged the wonderful cringe-fest that is The Kissing Booth 2 , do it, now!

If you're equally as obsessed with The Kissing Booth franchise as us, you'll know that the show's main couple - Elle Evans and Noah Flynn used to date in real life.

Joey King, 20, and Jacob Elordi, 23, fell for each other after they played on-screen love interests for the Netflix Original film back in January 2017.

They then dated for a while, breaking up towards the end of 2018 after the film was released and was hugely successful, and before the sequel was then announced.

We don't know about you, but bumping into an ex under normal circumstances is awkward enough as it is, never mind having to reunite and play an on-screen couple for weeks on end and spend most of your waking hours on set together.

When did Joey and Jacob get together and how long did they date for?

After they played Elle and Noah on-screen in January 2017, reports say that they fell for each other only a month into filming after spending tonnes of time together off-set.

They went Instagram official in April, but it's likely they were official in private a while before this.

Throughout 2017 the pair posted loads of loved up snaps together but the've since been deleted.

Joey and Jacob seemed strong throughout 2017 and the first half of 2018, sharing a few PDA's at the Kissing Booth premiere in the summer of 2018.

When did they break up and why?

It's hard to say for certain what broke up the couple, as of course that stuff is kept private, but things started to dry up on social media between the couple towards the end of summer 2018.

They stopped posting the cute pictures and videos they'd normally been doing regularly around September/October, and Jacob announced a social media hiatus soon after in November.

Joey posted the following tweet a few days after, pretty much cementing they had broken up.

In early 2019, a sequel to the film was announced, so the pair knew they'd have to reunite to film again.

Both King and Elordi were asked about their dating lives in the run-up to The Kissing Booth 2's premiere, with Joey saying: "In this world, everyone wants to know your business and what you're doing and I think it's very interesting when you go through things and people kind of feel like they're owed an explanation, but I understand."

She continued, seemingly addressing hers and Jacob's relationship: "For me, I've publicly gone through some things, privately gone through some things, it's all about finding your balance, finding what makes you comfortable.

"And it can be brutal, but you know happy endings do come to those who are patient."

When Jacob was asked, he said tends to "ignore it" when people speak about his private life: "just even the fact that somebody you don't know knows your name could be quite disembodying.

He added: "Whatever people are talking about is not your business, it's kind of how it feels.

"Unfortunately, it just has my name involved in it but it literally has nothing to do with me.

"It just doesn't affect the trajectory of my life."

The sequel was released on July 24, 2020. Notably, the film focuses heavily on the long-distance nature of Noah and Elle's relationship, meaning the exes don't share as much screen time together as the original movie.

Who are they dating now?

Since their 2018 split, both Jacob and Joey have seemingly found love elsewhere.

Joey has been dating producer Steven Piet and referred to him as her "sweet boyfriend" in an interview with InStyle about life during quarantine.

And Jacob has been linked to The Greatest Showman actress and singer Zendaya.