Outer Banks interviews are awkward, so what happened between Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey?

Outer Banks season five is finally out, but a lot of people seem to have forgotten all the feud drama between Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey, so here’s what actually happened.

The Outer Banks cast has always been closely watched by viewers, partly because the relationships between the characters have become just as important as the treasure hunts and general chaos.

So when JJ Maybank and Kiara Carrera finally became a proper couple, people were obviously very invested. Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey had played the characters since the beginning, and their friendship off-screen had also been a big part of the show’s appeal.

But then things started to look different. By the time season four came out, people were convinced that something had happened between Rudy and Madison in real life. Some even believed things had become so awkward between them that body doubles were being used for their romantic scenes.

So, what actually happened between them?

Rudy and Madison were originally very close

Rudy and Madison met while filming Outer Banks, with Rudy playing JJ and Madison playing Kiara. Their characters slowly went from friends to something more, and people started shipping them heavily. At the same time, the two actors seemed to have a genuinely close friendship off-screen.

In May 2020, Madison described Rudy as one of her closest friends while speaking to Access Hollywood. She said, “Rudy is my bestie. He is the first person I’m going to call out of everybody. We have a lot of chemistry because of that. Because we are really good friends.”

But things became more complicated as their personal lives changed. Rudy began dating Elaine Siemek, who worked as an assistant on Outer Banks. Madison, meanwhile, publicly confirmed her relationship with Mariah Linney, a former college basketball player.

The two actors were playing characters who were becoming romantically involved while they were both in relationships themselves. And, as tends to happen with Outer Banks, people started mixing the fictional relationships with the actors’ real lives.

There was also a long-running issue with people directing criticism towards the actors’ partners. Rudy eventually spoke publicly about the treatment Elaine had received online, saying that people were mixing up the show’s fictional storylines with reality.

Then came the infamous cast dinner

According to StyleCaster, Rudy, Elaine, Madison and Mariah were all at a cast dinner in June 2023. Afterwards, fans noticed some changes in who was following whom on Instagram.

Madison reportedly unfollowed Elaine, while Mariah also unfollowed her. Elaine was then reported to have unfollowed them, while Rudy reportedly unfollowed Mariah but continued to follow Madison. And that was basically enough for the internet to start trying to figure out what had happened.

The problem is that nobody involved ever publicly explained what happened at the dinner.

Wait, did they refuse to film romantic scenes together in season four?

@all_types_of_v1deos

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♬ my lips like sugarrrrrrr – resident yaoiville

JJ and Kiara were finally together in season four, meaning Rudy and Madison had to film romantic scenes as a couple. But viewers noticed something weird about one particular scene.

JJ and Kiara were cuddling around a fire, with Kiara resting her head on JJ. But the camera kept cutting between them instead of clearly showing both actors together in the same shot.

Some people started thinking that Rudy and Madison had refused to film the scene together and that body doubles had been used instead.

But there has never been any official confirmation that stunt doubles were used because the actors refused to film together. People basically inferred that from the editing and camera angles.

PEOPLE also reported in November 2024 that a source said Rudy and Madison were not feuding, despite all the speculation surrounding them.

Then people thought JJ was killed off because of the feud

When Outer Banks season four ended, JJ was killed by his biological father, Chandler Groff. For people who already believed Rudy and Madison had fallen out, the timing seemed suspicious. Some started suggesting that Rudy had left the show because of the alleged feud.

But the show’s creators have said JJ’s death was planned as part of the story. Josh Pate described JJ’s death as a “hard but necessary piece of the architecture for the story” and said the final season would honour the character.

The creators also explained that JJ’s death had been considered very early on in the show’s development. Cosmopolitan reported that the writers had been thinking about killing one of the Pogues since season one.

So there’s no confirmed evidence that Madison had anything to do with Rudy leaving the show.

Madison was actually emotional about Rudy leaving

“i will always carry a piece of you for the rest of my life” ❤️ pic.twitter.com/WGEMruKrtd

— obxnetflix (@obxnetflix) November 12, 2024

When the cast spoke about Rudy’s departure, Madison didn’t publicly treat it like the end of some bitter professional relationship. She became emotional while talking about what Rudy brought to the show and praised him for the way he developed JJ.

Madison said Rudy had brought “a lightheartedness that the show desperately needed.”

Rudy himself also spoke warmly about the cast and crew when saying goodbye. He said, “I want to leave the cast and crew with the biggest thank-you. It’s been such a pleasure to come to work. This is by far the biggest thing I’ve ever done in [my] experience, and to have this as my start is a start of a lifetime. I’m going to miss it. Thank you for so many fun memories I’ll have [for] the rest of my life.”

So, it’s never actually been confirmed what may or may not have happened at that dinner, or between Rudy and Madison in general. And since neither Madison nor Rudy has publicly spoken about any drama between them, most of the feud claims are still just speculation. But they did grow more distant than what we saw at the start.

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