Camila Mendes Admits It Was 'Hard and Emotional' Working With 'Riverdale' Costar Charles Melton After Their Breakup

Working with your ex is not something people tend to enjoy doing after a breakup — especially when the job involves portraying characters who have to kiss each other on the screen.

Camila Mendes knows this situation all too well, as she dated her Riverdale costar Charles Melton on and off from 2018-2021 while filming the hit CW series.

Appearing on the Monday, February 19, episode of "Armchair Expert," the 29-year-old actress opened up to host Dax Shepard about the difficulties she faced due to her off-screen relationship with Melton, 33.

"We dated for a year and then broke up for about a year and then got back together for about a year," Mendes explained, noting the second time around lasted for "like seven months" and was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It’s ‘cause it was COVID, that was a big catalyst. We broke up and then [it was] COVID and then the show was down for a long time so there was that big separation," she admitted.

When they had first returned to Canada to film Season 6 of the show, both stars were "in other relationships," the Do Revenge actress added of her romance with Grayson Vaughan.

"But then, naturally, the two of us got out of our own relationships — not knowing the other did," she detailed of how she rekindled with Melton. "And we’re in lockdown, we can’t leave Vancouver.... And it’s, like, 'Maybe second time's the charm?' Maybe this time it will be different."

During the time in between giving their relationship a go, Mendes confessed it wasn’t easy to shoot scenes with her ex-boyfriend 'in the beginning" though she is luckily "good" at handling breakups and is "good at keeping things professional."

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"Obviously, right when it happened, it’s hard and it’s emotional," the Upgraded actress expressed. "It’s the worst. But it’s hard because the timing of the show — it was jokes — because it was like, any time we started to hook up off set and knew that something was brewing, our characters would start dating. But they didn’t know. No one knew. The writers just would naturally make it happen."

By the time Mendes and the May December actor called it quits on their fling for good, the decision was "mutual."

"It ended very peacefully and ‘wish you all the best,'" Mendes shared. "But it still hurts, no matter what."

When returning for the show’s seventh and final season, both the Palm Springs actress and Melton had moved on from the back-and-forth qualities of their romantic relationship.

"There was definitely like an air of, ‘Zen, we’re past it.’ We worked together a lot as well but not in a romantic capacity," Mendes explained.

She concluded: "It went super smoothly last season. I think the whole last season felt very different in that way where we all really came together in the last season, cause it’s like this is the last time we're all gonna be together in this room who knows when something like this will happen again."