KJ Apa has made it official. The Riverdale alum confirmed he is dating model Renée Wilkins during an exclusive interview with E! News at the world premiere of his new film Jimmy in Dallas, Texas, on November 4.
His summary was two words long. “It’s great,” he told the outlet.
KJ Apa Confirms Relationship with Renée Wilkins at Premiere
Apa confirmed the romance one month after he and Wilkins made their red carpet debut together in October. Until the premiere, he had stayed tight-lipped about their relationship, according to E! Online.
Wilkins had been less guarded. She told The New Zealand Herald in an October 19 statement, “I just love that beast.”
Jimmy is a biopic, out November 6, with Apa playing Oscar-winning actor Jimmy Stewart as he enlists as a combat pilot in the U.S. Army during World War II. The film’s big night doubled as the night he went public.
Apa Describes Wilkins as His ‘Bestie’ in New Interview
“She’s my bestie,” the 29-year-old told E! News. Asked how he knows she is the one, he kept it short: “Why not?”
KJ Apa sounded more expansive on the future. “I’m all about manifesting,” he said, adding that he believes we manifest everything for ourselves, the positive and the negative, so it pays to be careful about what occupies your thoughts. Then he pulled back from the long view entirely. “I try my best to be in the moment,” he told the outlet.
Manifesting and staying present sound like opposites. In his answer they sat side by side.
Have you ever started dating someone who was already your best friend?
The Couple’s Dynamic Highlights Friendship in Romance
Bestie is an unusual word for a man to choose on a red carpet when asked about a girlfriend. Most people reach for something heavier. He picked the word you use for the person you call first about nothing in particular.
Friendship language in a new relationship tends to signal ease. Nobody performing. Nobody auditioning. KJ Apa confirmed he is dating Renée Wilkins. He called her his “bestie.” He answered a question about how he knows she is the one with, “Why not?
Her side of it is warmer and louder. “That beast” is affection with a grin in it, the kind of thing friends say about each other.
Context matters here. KJ Apa split from French model Clara Berry more than two years ago after four years of dating, and the two share a son. Berry said in a now-deleted February 2024 TikTok video that separated, happy parents beat staying in a situation that is not working. Apa told Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show in August 2025 that becoming a father forced him to get sober, and that his son saved his life.
Apa rebuilt his life around being present for his son, and he now talks about his new relationship in those same terms. Neither he nor Wilkins has said where things go from here. For now, he tries his best to stay in the moment.
Sources: E! Online
