Certain types of love don’t come out and say themselves. It builds up slowly in Disneyland Paris’s green rooms and in the breaks between takes, as people dress up for Halloween and wear matching Mickey Mouse sweaters. It’s been real for a while before the rest of the world really gets it. That’s Mary Mouser and Tanner Buchanan’s story. There were always signs, now that I look back.
They worked together on a set for the first time in 2018 when Cobra Kai debuted on what was then YouTube Premium. It later became a huge hit on Netflix. Mouser plays Samantha LaRusso, who is the daughter of the original Karate Kid. Buchanan filled in as Robby Keene, a dark and troubled kid who can make any scene feel a little dangerous. During season two, their characters had a short, shaky love story. Off-screen, they became real friends, which is something that the entertainment industry sometimes acts like doesn’t exist.
For many years, they said they were just that. In 2019, Mouser wrote a sweet birthday post for Buchanan. It was the kind of thing you’d write about your best friend—calling him a “kind and beautiful soul” and her “bestest budddddddy.” From what I could tell, it was real love. After the fact, it’s possible that it was more than that. They weren’t giving anything away, though.
Plus, even the closeness of the job seemed to surprise Buchanan, which I find interesting. In an interview with Interview Magazine in 2020, he said that filming the kiss scene with Mouser in season two caused him more stress than any of the show’s difficult physical stunts. The interview took place across from Ralph Macchio. “My heart was pounding, I was shaking,” he replied. It seemed weird to him at the time to cross that line with a close friend. When I think about it now, it seems like something else.
People noticed the quieter times but didn’t quite connect with them. They spent November 2022 together at Disneyland in California. The next month, they flew to France to visit Disneyland Paris, where they were photographed wearing sweaters that matched. They both liked Disney parks, which didn’t seem like a coincidence but more like a habit. Both of them still didn’t prove anything. Their private life stayed private, and they didn’t do it for publicity reasons.
On February 12, 2025, that changed. Mouser and Buchanan walked the red carpet together and kissed at the Netflix series finale event for Cobra Kai. The show had been a big part of their personal and professional lives for six years. They also put up their left hands, which were ringed in the same way. It wasn’t a messy reveal or a mistake. It felt planned, even poetic, that they chose the end of one chapter to start a new one in public.
The following day, they shared a joint post on Instagram that confirmed their engagement. It had pictures of them walking together before the event with champagne glasses raised. With the caption, “We’re so happy to finally share that we’re engaged,” “This is such a special moment in our lives, the closing of one chapter and celebrating the continuation of another.”
It seems like this love story hit home because it felt like it was deserved. They worked together for six years on the same set and became closer with each season. They were on a slow, steady path to something more. It’s still not clear when their friendship turned into something more, and they seem happy to keep some of that information to themselves, which is fair. Every love story doesn’t have to be told in real time.
It’s clear that Mary Mouser and Tanner Buchanan made something real in the quiet times between jobs, away from the cameras and interview lights. They chose when and how to show it to the world.
