Those Cole & Lili Breakup Rumors Are Now So Much More Confusing

If you were hoping for some clarity on what's going on with the rumors they broke up, don't look to Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart's W interview for answers. Well, actually, the interview, published on July 25, seems like it gives a pretty definitive answer: Yes, they're broken up, though the two never outright confirm this. The reporter who penned the piece, David Amsden, starts it off by explaining that the two stars raised suspicions for him that they might have broken up by requesting to be interviewed separately. Elite Daily reached out to representatives for both Sprouse and Reinhart about the rumored breakup but have not heard back.

Let's backtrack for a sec. On Monday, July 22, Sprouse and Reinhart made headlines after several sources "confirmed" that the couple had parted ways after two years of dating. The two uber-private stars did not confirm or deny the reports, but instead, waited until July 25 to post the cover of their new W interview on Instagram, at the exact same time. The interview was published on July 25, but Amsden makes it clear it was conducted two months prior, and that the stars were interviewed separately. However, in their conversations with Amsden, they say several things about their relationship as if it was still, well, happening. For example, Sprouse says, “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.”

Fair, but it gets confusing when the writer includes language indicating that they are now, at present day, broken up, although he doesn't indicate whether or not W reached out for an update, or if the reported breakup is just an assumption based on the rumors that have circulated about it.

"Two months later the two would part ways romantically, lending credence to my suspicions that the separate interviews might have been connected to the two of them being uncertain about their future together," Amsden wrote, after relaying a moment he shared with Sprouse smoking cigarettes on his Hollywood roof-deck. Throughout the piece, he peppers in similar quotes that make it seemingly obvious that the couple broke up. "It was hard to be bothered, even once I learned that the couple I was profiling was maybe no longer a couple," he wrote at another point in the profile.

At one point, he even refers to their relationship's "bittersweet unraveling." No, seriously:

Listening to them each riff about the petri dish that is their lives, it was understandable that they’d both want to protect their formative connection from being fodder to fans, as well as keep me from having a front row seat to its bittersweet unraveling.

Then, when readers have pretty much resigned to the fact that the couple must be broken up, Amsden drops this confusing AF bombshell at the end:

“I won’t lie, I am exhausted by it,” she [Reinhart] told me. “Luckily, I love the people I work with. I can’t imagine how miserable I’d be if I hated them.” Maybe I was reading between the lines — and, who knows, maybe Reinhart wanted me to — but I couldn’t help but think she was talking about one person in particular. Wink, wink. All good.

"Wink, wink. All good." What? Does that mean their relationship is "all good" and this whole breakup scheme was just a weird practical joke? Does it mean that Amsden believes they're "all good" despite the fact that he thinks they're broken up? I don't know.

And Reinhart and Sprouse are only making things even more confusing. They each posted the (extremely sexy) W cover with their own deeply confusing captions. For his part, Sprouse wrote: "UNPRECEDENTED: Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart consume the flesh of ‘reliable sources’ to fuel their bacchanalian sex cult."

OK, confusing. But I'm going to go ahead and assume that was a joke...? Then there's Reinhart's caption: "BREAKING: A reliable source has confirmed that none of you know sh*t."

It's Reinhart's caption that makes everything extremely confusing because, well, who is she referring to? Is she referring to fans who believed in her rumored split, or Amsden who wrote that they were broken up although neither celeb confirmed it verbally? I don't know, you guys. This might be the most confused I've felt since I took pre-calc my senior year of high school.