Some relationships start with a lot of noise, like a red carpet event, tabloid rumors, or a publicist’s well-timed announcement. Then there are stories like the ones by Peyton List and Jacob Bertrand. Slow and quiet. They were friends for years before anyone used the word “couple.” This timeline makes you think that Hollywood might get something right once in a while.
They met for the first time in 2015. List was already well-known on Disney Channel for her long-running role on Jessie, and Bertrand was making a name for himself on Disney XD’s Kirby Buckets. They were both teenagers—she was 15—and any feelings they had for each other were more like friendship. Bertrand himself said that he was close with List’s twin brother Spencer first. “I was really close with her brother Spencer,” he told TMZ when the relationship became public in March 2022. “So it was kind of weird to say, ‘Hey man, I like your sister.'” There’s something really sweet about that detail. It’s not fancy in the best way possible.
In 2016, they worked together more formally when they were both cast in The Swap, a Disney Channel original movie based on Megan Shull’s young adult novel. In September, they went to an event at Knott’s Scary Farm together with the press. In October, they went to the official premiere in Los Angeles. Pictures from those events show two young co-stars who look happy and at ease with each other. No one knows if there was more to it at that time. Most likely not. But the base was being built up, one brick at a time and without any hurry.
From the outside, what happened over the next few years looked like a normal friendship going about its normal business. Bertrand went to List’s 20th birthday party in April 2018 and wish the “sweetest twins” a happy birthday in a group photo. The next year, he went to the premiere of her movie Anthem of a Teenage Prophet, even though List was dating Cameron Monaghan, who played her co-star in the movie. Bertrand still posted the picture, told her she “frickin killed it,” and then she moved on. Not anything exciting. Just someone who came because they cared.
When List joined Cobra Kai in season 2, the real change happened. They worked together again on set every day. Being tired from long waits, taking the same shots over and over, and working on a set together for hours tends to make things clearer. Bertrand himself put it this way: “trial by fire.” He had never gone out with a coworker before. They might have had enough time and space to figure out who they were to each other while working together on Cobra Kai.
Speculation about a relationship began before either of them said a word in public. There were cute posts on social media and appearances at the same events, which is the kind of “soft evidence” that fans like to read before someone makes an official announcement. There wasn’t much of a fuss when the confirmation finally came in March 2022. Bertrand told TMZ that they had been dating “for a while.” It’s not a PR push. Doesn’t just come out in glossy magazines. It was just a simple, almost understated acknowledgment of something that had been true for a while.
It’s not the fact that they are famous that makes their story interesting. You have to be patient. In a field where relationships are often sped up, it took List and Bertrand seven years to go from “nice to meet you” to “yes, we’re together.” That is not a story that someone made up. It’s what happened when two people were close enough to each other to finally see things clearly.
