Here's What Joey King Said About Working With Ex Jacob Elordi On 'TKB2’

If you loved The Kissing Booth, chances are you were super excited when you heard that Netflix would be releasing a sequel. And while the cast was probably just as excited, Joey King’s quote about working with ex Jacob Elordi all over again shows it definitely wasn't easy.

On the Oct. 30 episode of the podcast Mood With Lauren Elizabeth King, the actor opened up about what it was like to come back for The Kissing Booth 2, choosing her words very carefully. “Making the sacrifice of what, obviously, everyone is thinking about — outwardly addressing, but what I’m kind of on the sly addressing, making those sacrifices was totally worth it,” King said on the podcast.

For context, King and Elordi first met back in 2017 on the set of The Kissing Booth, and what started out as a friendship blossomed into a romance. “Well, I thought he was very cute when we first met, but it started as a friendship. Right away we were talking about gross things with each other,” King told Bello magazine in 2018. "But before long I started to realize, ‘Hey, I think I kind of like this person!’ It was such an interesting experience meeting your boyfriend on set because you spend so much time together and become so close so fast. We were spending 17 hours a day together, and all of us would hang out after work and watch movies together and stuff. It was great."

The two dated for about a year, but both went radio silent when they split, with Elordi even deleting his Instagram at the time. King finally addressed the breakup with Elordi, briefly, in an interview with Refinery29 in March 2019. "All you can really do at that point is shut your phone off and crawl into your sister's bed and watch Friends with her, because when you're going through something and the world wants to go through it with you or [wants] to get every piece of detail from you about it, it's really difficult. Some of these things are just meant for you," she told the publication.

It makes sense that returning to the franchise where they first met and fell in love would be challenging. And while it may not have always been easy on King, she did share it was ultimately a growing experience for her, as well as a sacrifice. “It’s a real thing. It was fine. It was good,” she said on the Mood pod, later adding, “It was crazy. It was a wild experience. But honestly, it was a really beautiful time. Because I learned a lot about myself and I grew as an actor. I grew as a person on this.” You go girl.