Hunter Schafer says Dominic Fike cheated on her before they broke up.
The Euphoria actress, 25, got candid about the “mutually agreed upon” split with her 28-year-old co-star on the latest episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast.
“It was one of the cleaner break ups I’ve had,” Schafer says at the 1:07:57 mark of the episode. “We both recognized that this is not working and we can’t do this. We got to go our own separate ways. It was so, so hard because we really loved each other, you know? And he’s a really special person and I love his soul and everything.”
“It was messy, but it was a clean parting. He has a lot to work on and I also have a lot to work on… But there were things in our own selves that had nothing to do with each other that kept coming up in the way of the relationship,” she added.
According to People, Schafer and Fike met on the set of the hit HBO teen drama and confirmed their relationship in February 2022. They eventually played love interests in the show, in a complicated love triangle between their characters Jules and Elliot along with Zendaya’s starring role as Rue.
Schafer, who is transgender, told Cooper that her romance with Fike was her first public and monogamous relationship. Unfortunately, that kind of visibility brought some challenges and hateful comments to the couple.
“This is a straight guy who is in the music scene too, and we are in a public relationship. He’s dating a trans woman and he’s completely straight. He’s only dated cis women before,” Schafer said.
“He’s toting me around, happy to be my boyfriend in front of the world, and people are saying horrible, nasty shit because it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re so gay.’ He didn’t care at all," she added. "That was something that really showed me ‘Oh, you really see me for and love me for that.’”
“I was anxious but I was also just head over heels in love and happy to be doing it,” she added.
The couple eventually called it quits last Summer over Fike’s infidelity, which fans believe he addressed in his song “Dark.” Schafer says she made the discovery after a “gut” instinct led her to search the contents of his phone, a fact she admits she’s “not proud of.”
“It’s out there in the world. Part of why the relationship ended is [because] I got cheated on for the first time,” Schafer admitted.
She continued, “It’s fine to be talking about it today, and it’s part of my truth. But that fundamentally changed me as a person and it was this whole process of realizing that cheating has nothing to do with you at all.”
Schafer explained that Fike cheating "has everything to do with that person and whatever kind of pain they’re in or whatever they’re dealing with. It’s all of that, but it’s so hard.”
Euphoria is set to begin production of its third (and possibly final) season in January with Schafer and other cast members including Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Alexa Demie, and Maude Apatow expected to return.
Last July, Fike told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that his struggles with addiction made it difficult to film the series.
“I mean I was a drug addict and coming onto a show mainly about drugs was very difficult,” Fike told Lowe, per the Hollywood Reporter. “Sam, the director and writer, he got me a sober coach, somebody to be there you know all the time. Did not work. I was so fucked up during a lot of that show. It was really bad.”
Despite nearly being kicked out of the show, Fike said that he was looking forward to returning for its next season now that he’s sober. Fike also mentioned that he thinks things will be cool with Schafer when the show resumes filming.
“I think it’ll be fine. We’re all adults, kind of. I’m trying,” he said.