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KJ Apa is giving some major love to his girlfriend.
One month after the Riverdale alum made his red carpet debut with Renée Wilkins, he confirmed they’re in a relationship while sharing insight into their sweet dynamic.
“It’s great,” Apa exclusively told E! News at the world premiere of his new film Jimmy in Dallas, Texas, Nov. 4. “She’s my bestie.”
As for how he knows the model is the one? He put it simply: “Why not?”
The Hate U Give actor also revealed that he and Wilkins could be hearing wedding bells in their future, even considering ring shopping soon.
“I’m all about manifesting,” he added. “I think we manifest everything for ourselves, the positive and the negative. So, you’ve got to be careful about what you spend your time thinking about.”
But the 29-year-old isn’t looking too far into the future, emphasizing to E!, “I try my best to be in the moment.”
Though Apa—who plays Oscar-winning actor Jimmy Stewart as he enlists as a combat pilot in the U.S. Army during World War II in the biopic, out Nov. 6—has remained tight-lipped about their romance so far, Wilkins did share her love for the actor.
In fact, she told The New Zealand Herald in an Oct. 19 statement, “I just love that beast.”
Apa’s confirmation comes more than two years after he and Clara Berry—who share 5-year-old son Sasha—broke up following four years of dating.
“Everything is better,” the French model said of the breakup in a now-deleted February 2024 TikTok video. “I think it’s better to have parents who are separated, who are happy and who can be the best version of themselves, than staying together in a situation that it not working.”
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For Apa—who coparents with Berry, 32—fatherhood has been the map that leads him to be a better person and actor.
“It also forced me to get sober,” he said on Andy Cohen‘s SiriusXM radio show in August 2025. “A lot of things that I realized I had to button up, I buttoned up. Yes, and I realized that there’s no other way for me to do it.”
“Sasha being a gift that saved my life. I truly believe having Sasha saved my life,” he added. “I go, ‘I love you so much more than me.’ I have to sacrifice all these things for you. And that’s what a good parent does.”
For a closer look at the love lives of Apa and his Riverdale costars, keep reading.
—Reporting by Lauren Herbert
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