The Summer I Turned Pretty is all about the allure of summer romances — and it seems like one of these flings made its way off-screen. Fans are convinced that Sean Kaufman and Minnie Mills, who played a couple in the show’s first season, are now dating in real life. Throughout July, the duo hit several New York City date nights.
At the end of the month, Kaufman and Mills attended the BLACKPINK at Citi Field in Queens. They even got a photo with LiSA, which Kaufman and Mills shared on Instagram on July 29. Fans celebrated in the comments sections of their matching IG posts. “OMGGG THEY ARE DATING YESS,” one wrote. Another commented, “THIS JUST MADE MY DAYYYY!!! FINALLY, MY STEVEN AND SHAYLA ARE DATING IN REAL LIFE!😭❤️.”
Earlier in July, the duo attended a New York Red Bulls game together and were featured on the team’s Instagram story.
Kaufman and Mills go way back. In Season 1, they acted opposite each other, playing out the romance between Steven Tonklin (Belly’s brother) and Shayla Wang (one of Belly’s fellow debutantes). Their connection was short-lived on the show. Mills was only in TSITP’s first season, and Steven has since moved on with Belly’s bestie Taylor Jewel. But the real-life actors have kept their connection going.
Since filming together in 2021, Kaufman and Mills have remained close. In June 2022, Mills shared a sweet Instagram post for Kaufman’s birthday. “Happiest of birthdays to my best friend <3 thank you for always making me smile,” she captioned the photos. (In several of the pics, they were cuddled up together.)
Their friendship prompted some romantic speculation, but Kaufman quashed those rumors when he started dating Nikol Tsvetanova, an actor based in NYC. Tsvetanova made their relationship public in January 2023 when she shared a photo of them kissing on Instagram, per J-14.
Although Kaufman and Tsvetanova never announced a breakup, she did take down her post of them kissing — which seems like proof that their relationship ended, especially considering Kaufman and Mills now seem closer than ever.
In March, the duo took a trip to Cancun together, joined by fellow TSITP star Christopher Briney and Briney’s longtime girlfriend, Isabel Machado. Following their vacation, a source told the Daily Mail that Kaufman and Mills were seeing each other. “They are still together and very happy,” the insider told the outlet in April 3.
In May, Kaufman and Mills attended the SANDRO Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview in New York City. They posed for photos together at the event, and according to fans on TikTok, Kaufman shared a photo of the two of them from the outing to his IG Stories.
Fingers crossed that Kaufman and Mills have better luck than Steven and Shayla.
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