It started with a movie. It turned into one of the most talked-about “will they, won’t they” sagas in Hollywood in years. Ever since Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney stepped onto Australian soil to film their 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You, the internet has refused to let the idea of them being “just friends” go.
Photos from the set went viral. A breakup followed. A press tour lit the internet on fire.
Then came the bombshell confession about a calculated PR strategy, a scorned ex speaking out with raw emotion, and a headline-grabbing reunion at a family wedding right as Sweeney’s own engagement collapsed.
Two A-list stars, one explosive rumor cycle, and a story that refuses to die. So what actually happened between Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney? Here is everything, laid out from start to finish.
How the Anyone But You Press Tour Started the Rumor
When Anyone But You went into production in Australia, almost no one expected it to become a cultural moment. The film, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, grossed $220 million worldwide on a reported $25 million budget, making it one of the biggest rom-com surprises in years. But the box office numbers were not what people were talking about.
Powell had broken up with his longtime girlfriend after filming wrapped, and Sweeney was engaged to Jonathan Davino, which started rumors of an affair when photos of them filming in Australia went viral. The images showed two people with undeniable chemistry, clearly comfortable with each other in a way that was easy for fans to read as something more.
They were hounded by questions about their relationship throughout the press run for the film. Every interview became a referendum on whether something was really going on. Every smile, every glance, every casual touch was dissected online. The speculation became its own storyline, running parallel to the movie’s promotion and eventually outpacing it.
What Glen Powell Actually Said About the “Marketing Strategy”
For months, both stars deflected questions about any romantic involvement. Then, in April 2024, the curtain was pulled back. In an interview with the New York Times, Powell confirmed that the duo played up their flirtations on the film’s press tour, saying: “The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry. Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry. That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit — and it worked wonderfully.”
He did not stop there. In an interview with Business Insider, Powell gave Sweeney full credit for the idea, saying, “I don’t have the mental capacity to pull anything like this off, but she’s very smart. She’s very smart.”
In a later Vanity Fair interview, Powell doubled down on his philosophy, explaining: “I think what people forget about with a press tour is that it’s its own sense of entertainment. I don’t think it’s duplicitous.” His position was clear: this was showmanship, not deception. Whether audiences agreed with that framing was another matter entirely.
What Sydney Sweeney Said When Both Stars Set the Record Straight
Sweeney’s position on the rumor cycle has evolved more than once, and that complexity is worth paying attention to. In a 2024 Vanity Fair interview, she admitted she never intended to confirm the strategy publicly, saying: “Once it did become a success, a lot of the interviews were just questions about it, so I don’t know if we necessarily were planning on ever talking about the strategy behind any of it. We just had very specific questions, and when you say no to a question, people think that you’re a bitch, so.”
But by October 2025, her account had shifted noticeably. Speaking to Variety, Sweeney stated plainly: “Honestly, the press did it themselves. There was no leaning in, per se. Truly, the tabloids and journalists just created it and kept going. Even if we were just standing next to each other, it was ‘They’re standing two inches apart!'”
She went on to say: “Glen and I genuinely care for each other and have a love and respect for one another. I love being with him. And I think people just truly saw a really beautiful pairing.”
She also addressed the rumors directly on Saturday Night Live during her hosting stint, with a more blunt take. “That’s obviously not true,” she said during the monologue. “Me and my fiancé produced the movie together, and he was there the entire shoot.”
Two stars, one story, and accounts that do not quite line up. That tension has kept people talking long after the film left cinemas.
Gigi Paris’s Perspective: The Toll the Rumors Took on Their Relationship
While Powell and Sweeney were fielding questions about chemistry and marketing strategy, someone else was living through the real consequences. In June 2025, Powell’s ex-girlfriend Gigi Paris appeared on the Too Much podcast and spoke out for the first time about the end of their relationship.
Paris revealed that the cracks in her three-year relationship with Powell began forming six months before their official split in April 2023, with much of the strain coming from the intense public scrutiny surrounding Powell’s chemistry with Sweeney.
The moment that broke everything came when Paris flew to Australia to be with Powell during filming. She said that when she arrived, she was told not to visit the set. “He called and said, ‘The producers and I have discussed that I think it’s best that you don’t come to visit’… and that’s when I hung up,” she recalled. “That phone call really is what broke me.”
Paris also criticized Powell for not publicly shutting down the affair rumors when he had the chance, saying: “I just wanted him to say, ‘No, I would never cheat on my girlfriend.’ That’s all that needed to be said. And that wasn’t said. Never once. It was serving them for their PR.”
When asked directly whether Powell and Sweeney had actually hooked up, Paris was honest about her own uncertainty: “I have heard so many different sides of the story. I have no confirmation of what actually happened. I just know what my standards are. And for me, it just wasn’t okay the way it was handled, period.”
Powell responded to Paris’s comments in September 2025 with measured diplomacy. He told GQ: “I will always have nothing but love for her and respect for her. Relationships are really hard. And when two people break up, they each go to their own brunch, and they will each tell their own narrative.”
March 2025: Sydney Sweeney at Leslie Powell’s Wedding — What Really Happened
Just when the rumor cycle seemed to be cooling down, March 2025 handed the internet fresh fuel. Sydney Sweeney attended Leslie Powell’s wedding in Texas, and Leslie shared photos on her Instagram Stories that included the Euphoria star. The timing was extraordinary. Reports that Sweeney had called off her own engagement to Jonathan Davino were circulating at almost the same moment.
Several fans told DeuxMoi that they spotted Sweeney and Powell out at several hotspots around Dallas over the wedding weekend. The photos spread rapidly, and the speculation hit a new peak.
But the explanation was more straightforward than the internet wanted it to be. According to TMZ, Sweeney is “very good friends with the Powell family” and has been “very close” with Leslie for a long time. Sweeney reportedly confirmed her attendance months before anyone knew anything was wrong with her relationship with Davino, and she brought her own friend as her date, not Glen.
When Powell appeared on Today With Jenna and Friends on April 2, he addressed the situation with a knowing laugh: “Timing is everything in this world, isn’t it? She and Syd are obviously great friends, and it was a hell of a wedding. The Powells know how to do it right, so all the people who love her were there.”
Glen Powell’s Mother Cyndy Weighs In on the Reunion Speculation
If the internet needed a final word on the matter, it came from someone most people did not see coming. Glen Powell’s mother, Cyndy Powell, spoke to the Daily Mail on March 31 and said plainly: “They’re definitely not together,” adding that any romantic rumors between Glen and Sydney are “silly.”
Cyndy went further, offering a warm picture of what the friendship actually looks like from the inside: “We love Sydney. We’ve considered her just a really, really good friend. We were all together so much, and we haven’t seen her in a long time. She’s really a friend, and we all enjoy her.”
It is a picture that both stars have painted consistently, even if the circumstances around them have remained anything but simple. A marketing strategy that worked brilliantly. A real relationship that paid a painful price for it. A friendship that has quietly deepened over two years. And a reunion at a family wedding that the entire internet decided to make into something else.
What is actually true between Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney? By every public account, they are close friends with genuine warmth for each other, two people who built something electric on screen and chose to keep the connection alive off it. Whether that is the whole story or simply the story they are choosing to tell remains, for now, theirs alone to know.
