Nothing to see here! Jana Kramer recently had fans convinced that former One Tree Hill costar Austin Nichols was more than just a friend — but they shouldn’t get their hopes up.
The 37-year-old actress reunited with Nichols, 41, earlier this month, along with fellow OTH alums Stephen Colletti, Shantel VanSanten and Kate Voegele. The walk down memory lane was “so fun,” Kramer told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, November 8.
“I had not seen Austin in, like, almost 11 years. … We sat down after my show and we drank and we laughed,” the “Whine Down” podcast host said while promoting her upcoming Lifetime film, The Holiday Fix Up. “Shantel’s, you know, one of my closest friends from the show and [it was] so great to see her. … It was so fun to reconnect with them because, you know, we spent some years together and it was really, really cool.”
Austin Nichols and Jana Kramer Courtesy of Jana Kramer/Instagram
Kramer shared a handful of photos from the night out with her former costars, playfully updating her followers on where she thought the group’s characters would be now.
“Plot twist. ‘Brooke got the boy….Alex got the man’ Julian and Alex are now together years later 🤣,” she captioned a carousel of cozy snaps with Nichols on Sunday, November 7, holding hands with the Day After Tomorrow actor. “What do the cool kids say? Do y’all ship this? @austinnichols.”
Fans couldn’t help but chime in with their thoughts, as one Instagram user joked, “This is messing with my mind! 😂😂.” Another commented, “Alex + Julian NO! You + Austin YES!”
In the CW series, Kramer’s character, Alex Dupre, had a huge crush on Nichols’ Julian Baker. Unfortunately, he chose Sophia Bush‘s Brooke Davis in the end.
The strong response to the social media upload came as a surprise to Kramer, who told Us the hug they shared was totally innocent. “It was funny to see the fans, like, freak out,” she said on Monday. “They’re all like, ‘Are you going to Austin dating?’ I’m like, ‘No, we just have not seen each other in 11 years.’ … I was talking about the characters. I wasn’t talking about Jana and Austin.”
The country singer added, “Just because I go out with someone does not mean that, you know, I’m dating the person.”
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