Hollywood is weird. One day you’re playing a vampire’s best friend and a high school quarterback on a CW set in Georgia, and the next thing you know, it’s fifteen years later and you’re hard-launching a real-life romance in that very same town.
That is exactly the curveball Arielle Kebbel and Zach Roerig threw at us.
If you weren't paying attention to the convention circuit in 2025, you might have missed the moment the internet collectively lost its mind. For those of us who lived through the The Vampire Diaries (TVD) era, seeing Lexi Branson and Matt Donovan—characters who barely even talked on the show—kissing in public was... a lot. Honestly, it was the kind of crossover nobody had on their 2025 bingo card.
The Epic Cons Moment That Changed Everything
It happened in Covington, Georgia. To fans, that's basically the holy land of Mystic Falls. On April 6, 2025, during the "I Was Feeling Epic 3" convention, Zach Roerig decided he was done being low-key.
While Arielle was sitting at her autograph table, Zach walked up with a massive bouquet of flowers. He didn't just drop them off and leave. He leaned in, they shared a very real, very public kiss, and the room erupted.
A fan captured the whole thing on video, and it went nuclear on Instagram. When the fan account @tvd_brasilrn posted the clip with a caption about them being "the ultimate romantic" couple, Arielle didn't shy away. She hopped into the comments and dropped three red hearts.
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Confirmation? Basically.
Why This Pair Surprised Everyone
Usually, TVD couples were predictable. We had Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder (classic), or Joseph Morgan and Persia White (still going strong). But Arielle and Zach?
On The Vampire Diaries, Lexi was the ultimate "big sister" mentor to Stefan. She was iconic, but she was only in a handful of episodes because, well, Damon killed her pretty early on. Matt Donovan, meanwhile, was the human who just wouldn't die. He lasted all eight seasons.
They shared the screen in the first and last seasons, but there was never a "Lexi and Matt" ship. It didn't exist.
The Hallmark Connection: Where the Sparks Actually Started
If you want to know how Arielle Kebbel and Zach Roerig actually became a thing, you have to look at 2023. They were cast together in a Hallmark movie called Love in the Great Smoky Mountains: A National Park Romance.
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They played Haley and Rob.
Archaeologists.
Former high school sweethearts.
The plot was standard Hallmark fare—exes competing for a research grant who realize they still have feelings while digging in the dirt. But the chemistry? It was noticeably different. Zach actually commented during a fan event that same year about how he thought Arielle was one of the most beautiful girls to ever walk onto the TVD set. He even joked that twelve years later, he couldn't tell the difference.
Looking back, he was totally shooting his shot.
Where Are They Now in 2026?
As of early 2026, the couple is still very much together. They aren't the type to post "couple goals" photos every five minutes, which honestly makes them feel more authentic.
Arielle has been busy leading the charge on the Fox series Rescue: HI-Surf, where she plays Emily "Em" Wright. It’s a physical, demanding role that keeps her in Hawaii quite a bit. Zach, on the other hand, recently moved into a new phase of his career with The Waterfront, a Netflix project led by none other than TVD creator Kevin Williamson.
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A Quick Reality Check on Their History
- Zach Roerig's Past: Most fans know Zach is a dedicated single dad. He won full custody of his daughter back in 2013, a situation that was far more dramatic and serious than any CW script. It’s one of the reasons fans have such a soft spot for him; he’s a "real one."
- Arielle's Vibe: Arielle has always been the "cool girl" of the early 2000s (remember John Tucker Must Die?). She’s managed to stay relevant and working for two decades without the typical Hollywood drama.
The "Vampire Diaries" Curse (or Blessing?)
It's sort of wild how many people from that show ended up together. You’ve got Candice King and Steven Krueger (from The Originals) who went public around the same time. It seems like once you enter the "Julie Plec Universe," you're bound to date a co-star eventually.
What makes Arielle and Zach different is the timing. They didn't fall in love when they were twenty-something stars in the heat of a teen drama's peak. They reconnected as forty-year-old professionals who had lived through marriages, kids, and career shifts.
There’s something a lot more stable about that.
Why We Care (And Why You Should Too)
People love a "slow burn" that takes place over fifteen years of friendship. It’s the ultimate "it was always you" trope.
If you're looking for the next step to keep up with them, keep an eye on Arielle’s Instagram comments rather than her actual posts. She tends to leave little breadcrumbs there. Also, The Waterfront is worth a watch if you want to see Zach working back with the man who gave him his start in Mystic Falls.
The biggest takeaway? Sometimes the best relationships are the ones that don't make sense on paper—or on a script from 2009—but make perfect sense in the real world a decade later.
Keep following their individual projects, as both have major releases slated for the remainder of 2026. For those wanting to see the spark that started it all, go back and stream the Hallmark movie. It's basically a feature-length documentary of two people falling in love for real while pretending to look for fossils.