Rachel Bilson is having a little moment: She was candidly and perhaps jokingly pining for allegedly well-endowed ex Bill Hader on her podcast, and now she’s shutting down dating rumors and revealing past crushes. In an episode of Broad Ideas which dropped on Tuesday, August 30, Bilson talked to guest Chace Crawford about rumors that they dated in the aughts.
The two actors have a lot in common. Bilson starred in the soapy early-aughts teen drama The O.C. as Summer Roberts, and Crawford starred in the glossy late-aughts, early-2010s teen drama Gossip Girl as Nate Archibald. During the podcast, Bilson addressed an important issue: old rumors that she hooked up with Crawford back in the day.
“Someone saw us talking and the press went with, ‘Oh, did Rachel and Chace hook up?’” Bilson said, per People. “My publicist came to me and because at the time I was on a break from my serious relationship, I told her she had to kill the story.” Given the timeline, Bilson is most likely referring to her relationship with Star Wars star Hayden Christensen. They started dating in 2007 after meeting on the film Jumper and took a break in 2010. They got back together after the break but ended things for good in 2017. Bilson and Christensen have one child together.
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Bilson said her publicist released a statement about how she was not dating Crawford, but it was so harsh that she felt bad for Crawford. “They printed it, but it had a quote from my publicist that this is completely fabricated and I’m like, ‘Wait, that is so mean. I would never want to do that to Chace!’” she said.
Crawford laughed and said he never heard about these dating rumors. “I didn’t even realize this all went down,” he said. “I would have been thrilled if they thought we were dating.”
Although they never dated, Rachel Bilson did reveal that she had a crush on Crawford at one point, citing a night out at Boom Boom Room in New York City with the actor and some friends. Bilson said that on that night, she was interested in Crawford, but so was her friend. “We were silently battling for Chace’s attention. We were for sure in competition for you,” she said.
Crawford and Bilson both appear to be single at the moment—perhaps now’s their chance?
