"It does feel like a Netflix movie within itself."
Neighbours star Liam Maguire has revealed how the love triangle between his character Rhett Norman, Aaron Brennan and Colton Keys sparked a surprise co-star romance. Airing last year, the storyline had viewers gripped as Aaron (Matt Wilson) chose between his competing love interests.
In the end, he picked Rhett over Colton (Jakob Ambrose) as they departed Ramsay Street together – while Colton stayed until the show's conclusion last year.
However, Liam has confirmed that he is now dating on-screen rival Jakob after working on the soap together.
I think we were both pretty intimidated by each other, which is always a great way to start a relationship," he quipped while speaking with former co-stars Matt and Takaya Honda on Bin Night with Tak and Matty, calling their courtship a "slow burn".
Recalling one incident that suggested there was something more between them, he shared: "We did have one time where we did run lines and it was quite funny. We sort of went to each other's house, and it was so tense."
Liam admitted they "just kept laughing" as they both suggested they should be serious and run the lines, and there was about two hours of tension before they parted ways.
There was probably a while of that and [making excuses to be around each other]," he continued. "There was a bit of that where it was like, 'why are you laughing?' And I was like, 'I'm just finding something funny'. It was very tense."
Calling the circumstances of their bonding "very specific", he added: "Even our relationship now, we're much further along past that, but there's a very specific quality to that.
It's funny, because these days when people go, 'how did you meet?' It's always online these days, and it's funny to be like, 'so we were warring love interests on Neighbours'. And they're like, 'that's crazy!' It's pretty funny. It does feel like a Netflix movie within itself."
During the chat, Liam suggested they were "very subtle" when they were striking up their romance around the time of the on-screen love triangle, notably as they were being "pinned" against one another as characters.
"Even now, people see us and we post photos and stuff, and people are like, 'Oh, it's so good that you guys ended up being friends!'" he joked.