Early one morning, Van Patten woke up to a text from Oppenheimer saying that White had finally been cleared to play Stephen. Without a second thought, she ran into the bathroom to tell White, who was in the middle of taking a shower. Right after, Oppenheimer called White personally to break the news.
“You were like, ‘I know already,’” Van Patten recalls.
“And she was like, ‘How?’” White chimes in. “And then you said—”
“‘Hey.’”
The actors will never forget their soon-to-be boss’s immediate reaction. “What I said on the phone was, ‘Oh my God, you wh*res.’ Obviously, they’re not wh*res, but that was the word that came out—jokingly, obviously,” Oppenheimer says with a laugh. Though there have been many stories about failed romances between costars, Oppenheimer chose not to concern herself with the worst-case scenario. “I think that it’s actually quite normal to date your coworkers in any industry, and they both are pretty sane people. They want their job to go well, so I just felt like it wasn’t going to become an issue,” Oppenheimer says. The fact that her romantic leads quickly gave each other finger tattoos did give the showrunner pause, but at the end of the day, she adds, “I wouldn’t write a show like Tell Me Lies if I worried too much about workplace romances.”
Leading up to the launch of the show’s freshman season in September 2022, Van Patten and White tried to play what he called a “practical joke” on the general public to see how long they could get away with keeping their relationship a secret. “But more as a fun thing, not because we actually cared if people knew about it or not,” Van Patten insists. They kept the rumor mill spinning for months, posting suggestive photos and declaring in multiple interviews that they had “a crush” on each other. In early 2024, Sagal unwittingly blew their cover, revealing on a podcast that the couple had been dating “since the audition.”
At either her place or his, when they’re not busy running lines with each other, Van Patten and White enjoy the cozy comforts of domesticity. Their quiet time at home is often spent hanging out with White’s “scrappy little mut” Fred, who Van Patten jokingly says has very “human” eyes that make “you feel like he’s looking into your soul.” Van Patten inherited her parents’ penchant for cooking, White says, and makes all kinds of elaborate meals—chicken parmesan; different kinds of pasta (sausage and peas was a recent favorite); Greek bowls—and he can make a mean steak. They admit they are not great planners, instead wanting to live in the moment. Sonia Mena and Spencer House, their Tell Me Lies co-stars who are also dating in real life, are often their partners in crime on little impromptu outings around Los Angeles.
