Riverdale is gone but not forgotten. The cast of the teen drama spent seven years working on the CW show together, and they’re still showing up for each other. When Camila Mendes recently attended her own surprise engagement party, her former co-stars KJ Apa, Madelaine Petsch, and Lili Reinhart were part of the celebration.
An Engagement Party And Reunion
Mendes announced her engagement to internet personality Rudy Mancuso on Oct. 25. The couple, who started dating in July 2022, shared a joint Instagram post with three photos of Mancuso’s proposal. For the caption, Mendes wrote, “engaged to my best friend,” adding the face-holding-back-tears and ring emojis.
Three days later, on Oct. 28, Mendes posted a dozen photos from her and Mancuso’s engagement party, revealing she hadn’t been expecting it. “thank you to all our loved ones who came out to celebrate this milestone with us,” she wrote. “best surprise ever.”
The party photos showed three of Mendes’ Riverdale co-stars among her loved ones. In one, she, Reinhart, and Petsch shared a group hug. In another, Apa, Reinhart, and Petsch were seated together, posing for a snap on someone’s phone. The meta photo-within-the-photo later made its way onto Instagram, too. Petsch posted images of the three Riverdale guests to her story, writing, “A reunion weekend.”
Both Apa and Reinhart reposted Petsch’s story, with Apa adding, “my girls” and four heart emojis. Reinhart also shared the photographer’s group hug photo after writing, “lol.” Mendes and Petsch shared it, too, but with more sentimental additions: Mendes used the loudly-crying-face emoji and Petsch wrote, “My whole world, omg.”
Riverdale Love
The four Riverdale vets, along with Cole Sprouse, starred as the central teen characters from the Archie Comics. Apa’s Archie was initially in a love triangle with Reinhart’s Betty and Mendes’ Veronica, and Apa has said that the cast’s off-screen relationships were just as complicated.
“There’s a lot of drama that comes on shows like that,” he told Entertainment Weekly in August. “Not to say in like a gossipy kind of way, but it’s just part of the environment, I guess.”
Apa also likened the cast to “the family you never asked for,” noting he meant that “in a beautiful way.” However, he also went on to talk about the non-familial connections, claiming that co-stars hooking up with each other is “part of the deal” on teen shows. “Then things get a little complicated, and then you’re on set, and now you’re fighting with them,” he added.
Not long thereafter, during the Sept. 17 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Petsch brought up Apa’s EW interview to “set the record straight” on the behind-the-scenes dynamics. “I did not touch a single person on that show with a 10-foot pole,” she said.
As for her bonds with her co-stars, she said that she, Reinhart, and Mendes “all became best friends, like, immediately.”
“It was like a match made in heaven really fast,” she added. “Almost scarily fast, where you’re like, ‘This is going to burn out quickly.’ And then it just never did.”
