KJ Apa states Cole Sprouse's punch a "Wake-Up Call"

Publish date: Wednesday, 22 Jul 2026, 1:06PM

It says a lot that Cole & KJ are still friends and can laugh about it 😊

Cole Sprouse punched Riverdale co-star KJ Apa when he found out he was using drugs again.

The actors starred as Jughead and Archie respectively in the beloved teen TV series, and became close friends during their time working on the show, which ran from 2017 to 2023.

KJ made a guest appearance on Cole’s brother Dylan’s Wildmen podcast to discuss his time on the programme and said that Cole has never held back when it comes to sharing his views.

KJ said: “He punched me in the face! He hit me because we were in a strip club and, at this time, I was doing a lot of drugs, and a lot of my close friends were worried about me.

“And he had learned that I was doing drugs again.”

KJ added that it was a “love punch”, with Dylan interjecting: “It was kind of a wake-up punch”.

“Yeah. No, it was a wake-up punch,” KJ agreed.

As for his ‘bromance’ with Cole, KJ previously told Glamour magazine that it took some work for them to get to where they are today.

He said: “He’s a good guy. It took us a while for us to become close. We go camping – we actually drove back to LA from Vancouver which was sick – a really nice trip. And we’ve been camping out in Canada, which is really beautiful too.”

It’s not the first time that KJ - who has four-year-old son Sasha with his ex-girlfriend Clara Berry - has discussed quitting drugs, as he previously told Andy Cohen on his Sirius XM show that it was fatherhood that “forced me to get sober”.

He said: “A lot of things that I realised I had to button up, I buttoned up, and I realised that there’s no other way for me to do it.

“Honestly, my relationship with my higher power. Sasha being a gift that saved my life. I truly believe Sasha, having Sasha saved my life.

“You know, you have a kid and then suddenly you understand the idea of murder. You know, that like, you can empathise with why someone would kill someone, because you love someone so much.”

“And that’s that same feeling that I go, ‘I love you so much more than me’. And in order to, I have to sacrifice all these things for you and that’s what a good parent does.”

Become a part of our ZM Close Friends list and get our newsletter with all the hottest concert news, exclusive giveaways, and behind-the-scenes goss straight to your inbox!