Meet the Outer Banks Cast’s Real-Life Partners—Including Who’s Single & Who Isn’t
Outer Banks has been a very popular show on Netflix for years. The show, which follows the lives of John B. (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), JJ (Rudy Pankow), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Cleo (Carlacia Grant), or the Pogues, and their hunt for treasure after treasure, has made its starts famous and has also created a great deal of curiosity about the real-life partners of each of the main characters. Because when you love a show, you want to know everything.
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The show, which ended Season 4 with the heartbreaking death of JJ—though a lot of fans don’t believe he’s gone for good—has been renewed for a fifth and final season. And though the Pogues have already found one treasure, Season 5 will see them still pursuing the blue crown, a magical artifact that is said to be able to grant wishes.
Fans are convinced the show could bring back JJ this way. But whether Rudy Pankow’s JJ is gone from the show for good or not, the appetite for information about the actors’ personal lives remains high, particularly considering that ending that has everyone talking.
So, who is each member of the Outer Banks cast dating? What do we know about each of these relationships? Here’s all the information we could dig up.
Who is the Outer Banks cast dating in real life?
Chase Stokes
Chase Stokes, who plays John B. in the show is dating singer-songwriter Kelsea Ballerini. They were first linked in January 2023, after Ballerini reportedly slid into Stokes’ DMs. And the two haven’t been shy about their relationship, openly complimenting each other and posting pictures together.
“The amount of effort that we put into our careers, we should be doubling that in our personal lives,” Stokes told PEOPLE in September 2024. “It’s about really putting in effort, and it’s not always easy and it’s not always convenient, but having a big, beautiful life didn’t come from convenience or ease.”
Stokes previously dated co-star Madelyn Cline, who plays his on-screen love interest Sarah Cameron, until late 2021. But there’s no bad blood between them! In fact, the two have spoken about the promise they made before they started dating that the show would always come first.
And Ballerini herself has had nothing but good things to say about Cline, including during a TikTok from October 2024 where she said, “We stan Sarah Cameron and Madelyn Cline in this house.”
Madelyn Cline
Madelyn Cline, who plays Sarah Cameron in the show, famously dated co-star Stokes for over a year near the beginning of their time in Outer Banks. The two, however, broke up in 2021 and have continued to play love interests in the show, seemingly with no problems.
“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,” Cline told Entertainment Weekly in February 2023.
After Stokes, Cline dated musician Jackson Guthy and later famously dated SNL alum Pete Davidson. Her relationship with Davidson, however, didn’t last long and she has remained mum about the details of what happened, telling NYLON in October 2024 that she’d rather not discuss the relationship, though she did admit that “The jokes write themselves.”
Madison Bailey
Madison Bailey, who plays Kiara Carrera on the show, has been dating basketball player Mariah Linney, since 2020. The two, surprisingly, met via TikTok. In June 2020 she told Entertainment Tonight about taking the relationship public, “I had zero hesitation to post on social media about it because I was like, ‘No matter what happens, you will be in my life forever.’ I care about her so much.
Not just that, Bailey added about her girlfriend, “She’s very gentle-hearted, kind, loving, and you see that in the way she loves basketball [and] her family. You see her loyalty and dedication in the things that she cares about. I think I am in love.”
Linney, meanwhile, posted a sweet message on Instagram about her girlfriend after joining her for the Season 3 premiere of Outer Banks in early 2023, that read, “Being able to witness my partner be a literal shining star was such a beautiful genuine moment that I will cherish forever.”
Rudy Pankow
Pankow, who plays JJ Maybanks on the show—or who played JJ Maybanks, whether he will return for Outer Banks Season 5 is still unknown—has been dating girlfriend Elaine Siemek since 2020. The two met on the set of Outer Banks, where she worked as an assistant. She’s also a photographer.
Before the Outer Banks Season 4 premiere, Pankow brought up his relationship in an interview with Cosmopolitan in order to discuss the attention the two have gotten on social media.
“I think a lot of people can intertwine a narrative and what they want to believe. And they take it out on someone that doesn’t deserve it,” Pankow said. “That’s unfortunate and it’s hard.”
“That’s why I spoke up — no one should go through something like that,” he added, referencing an Instagram post he made defending his girlfriend from online abuse. “And that’s why social media is so tricky because sometimes it can enforce a narrative of a show as an actual narrative. For example, what we’re recording is meant to be consumed in the show. But some people might take it as literal.
Jonathan Daviss
Jonathan Daviss, who plays Pope Heyward in the show, is either very, very good at keeping things private or single. And the Outer Banks star hasn’t had any public relationships we can report.
Carlacia Grant
Carlacia Grant, who plays Cleo on the show, has remained as mum about her personal life as Daviss, who plays her on-screen love interest, Pope. So, if she’s dating someone, she’s remained very private about it.
Drew Starkey
A little more is known about the love life of Starkey, who plays Rafe Cameron in the show. In 2014 he was said to be dating Knives and Skin actress Claire VanDerLinden, and is currently rumored to be dating another actress, Odessa A’zion.
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