A Full Debrief On Chase Stokes & Madelyn Cline's Relationship Timeline

Cline opened up about her split from Stokes in a March episode of Therapuss with Jake Shane. “You look at any public breakup and you know, so many people are invested and of course, that was really hard,” she said.

“It was really, really hard to separate. But, also like any breakup, you grow out of it, which is great,” Cline continued. “But there was a period of time there where I truly did not know which way was up, which way was down because Outer Banks and that public relationship was kind of my identity. And I was like, ‘Who the f*ck am I?’”

Following their split, Stokes and Cline continued to work together, as their characters’ romance flourished. Ahead of Season 3’s release in February 2023, the duo opened up about the behind-the-scenes process of working together.

“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 told Entertainment Weekly on Feb. 3. “And that no matter what happens in our personal lives, and the ways that life sometimes takes you in different directions, that we’re always going to honor the work. That stayed 100 percent truthful this season.”

Cline agreed. “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,” she told the outlet. “I’m really, really happy and I’m very proud of the work this season, and I’m incredibly grateful for my co-stars and their professionalism and just how talented each and every one of them are.”

One month after their split, Stokes got fans’ hopes up when he discussed Cline in an Us Weekly interview. “She’s one of my favorite people on planet Earth,” Stokes told the outlet. “You know, it’s super awesome to work with somebody that you care about that much, and yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”

When asked about his relationship status, Stokes left it ambiguous: “No comment.”

Sources confirmed their split in November 2021. “Madelyn and Chase are no longer together,” one source claimed to People. “They were trying to work things out privately but broke up a couple of months ago.”

A second source added, “They are definitely broken up.” Other insiders confirmed the breakup to E! as well.

Cline and Stokes first sparked breakup rumors in Sept. 2021. At the time, TMZ posted a video of Cline and Ross Butler (who starred in 13 Reasons Why) dancing together at a restaurant in Milan. This wasn’t the only time this duo was spotted together. Throughout Fashion Week, they hung out together frequently, and they didn’t exactly shy away from posting about it. Meanwhile, Stokes was still in Miami.

Starting as co-workers worked well for Stokes and Cline. “We have a very healthy relationship because it started with the work first,” Stokes told V Man in July 2021. “We didn’t really have time to even comprehend the question: ‘Is there something here?’ That was all after the fact.”

In May 2021, Stokes and Cline attended MTV’s Movie & TV Awards with their Outer Banks cast mates ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere. There, the couple received an award for their Best Kiss nomination, and during their acceptance speech, Cline and Stokes shared a passionate kiss on stage.

Just about two years after they first met, Stokes and Cline celebrated one year together on April 4, 2021. “365 w/ u ❤️," Stokes captioned a photo of Cline on Instagram, while Cline posted her own pic of Stokes with the caption, “Thanks for helping me keep track of my belongings for a whole year (: adore u.”

In a February 2021 interview with Us Weekly, Stokes talked about how his romance with Cline first blossomed. According to him, they were too stressed about the show’s potential success to really see each other as more than friends until after they finished filming Season 1 of Outer Banks. “It wasn’t until after that until we started to kind of get into the lockdown where we were like, ‘Is there something here or am I crazy?’ That’s sort of where it bloomed from there,” he explained at the time.

By November 2020, it was pretty clear Cline and Stokes were the real deal, especially after Cline dropped the L-word while chatting with Entertainment Weekly. “It’s really cool. Love is tight,” she gushed when asked about the relationship. “It’s cool to share this experience with your favorite people and also your favorite person … I feel very happy.”

Not long after, Stokes wished Cline a happy birthday with a sweet message. “It’s quite rare to meet somebody and feel everything change,” he captioned a series of pics. “Thank you for making the coldest days warm, for your infectious love, and being the best dog mom to Lil mi. Happy birthday sweet thang you make my heart warm and fuzzy.”

Not long after going public with Cline, Stokes got real about how his new relationship was tested during quarantine. As he told Us Weekly during a July 2020 interview, “It was like an immediate test. It’s like, ‘Hey, you’re dating. Guess what? Figure it out. You’re stuck.’” However, he was also sure to add, “We’ve got really great communication, and the cool part is we’ve started a friendship first, which is awesome to be friends before you dive into a relationship.”

After a few months of dating rumors, Stokes finally confirmed they were dating with a cute IG post, showing himself and Cline having a picnic on the beach. “Cats outta the bag ❤️,” he captioned the pic, while Cline commented, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.”

Not long after Season 1 of Outer Banks debuted in April 2020, fans began to wonder whether Stokes and Cline were more than friends... especially when it was revealed the two were quarantining together with a few of their other cast mates amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. During an interview with Elle Canada, Cline insisted it was “just a quarantine thing,” adding, “At the very beginning, when stay-at-home orders were first issued, we all decided, ‘Why not just quarantine together?’”

However, Stokes kept the rumor mill turning when he left a flirty comment on a glamour shot of Cline for 1883 Magazine, which she shared to IG. “Heart rate... decreasing...help🆘,” Stokes commented. When fans freaked upon seeing his comment, Stokes jokingly added, “Man, I really stirred the pot here didn’t I?”

Though some fans thought Stokes and Cline first met on the set of Stranger Things (as they both playing minor roles on the series), the two did not cross paths until April 2019. “We actually never met [on that set]. She did Season 2 — I did Season 1, and I was there for, you know, a millisecond. So if you blink, you’ll miss me,” Stokes joked to Life & Style in July 2020. According to Chase, they actually met just “a week and a half or two weeks” before filming for Outer Banks began, which was in May 2019.