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Mekia Cox is just like Us — rooting for Chenford’s happily ever after on The Rookie. Still, watching actors Melissa O’Neil and Eric Winter pack on the PDA was, for her, a little awkward.
“I have always been a very big Chenford fan,” Cox, who plays Nyla Harper on the series, exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, September 5, while attending the ABC Summer Soirée in West Hollywood.
However, she confessed that when O’Neil, 37, and Winter, 49, “kissed for the first time on the show,” she “didn’t know what to do.” (O’Neil and Winter play Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford, respectively, who fans have dubbed “Chenford.”)
“All of a sudden it was no longer ‘Chenford,’ I just saw Melissa and Eric and I was weirded out too much,” Cox, 43, explained.
The actress admitted, “It was weird. I couldn’t take it. That’s where the make-believe gets a little odd. All of a sudden, it left. It was strange.”
Although it might be odd to see her costars go from friends to on-screen lovers, fans are consistently rooting for the pair to get back together on camera.
During season 6, Tim shocked viewers — and Lucy — when he called off their relationship after his past threatened to get her into trouble. Throughout season 7, Tim tried to better himself and become worthy of winning Lucy back.
The pair hooked up during a February episode following the LAPD’s Valentine’s Day gala, giving fans hope. O’Neil, however, exclusively told Us at the time that it would take more than a steamy hookup to rekindle their romance.
“For Lucy, it is going [to] require a very real conversation and accountability. She’s not just gonna slide into something if nothing has changed, especially because he’s the one that said that he can’t do this,” O’Neil explained in February.
She added: “She’d need a real sincere conversation and accountability because he kind of hung her out to dry. It’s like classic avoidant attachment. Like, ‘OK, so you’re really struggling and so now you wanna, like, isolate yourself and cut me out? Make it make sense.’”
During the season 7 finale, Tim and Lucy were in a much better place and on the brink of a full-on reconciliation. Tim even asked Lucy to move in with him, but due to her new night shift she fell asleep and didn’t hear his proposal.
“We’ve been building all season and beyond to getting them back together,” showrunner Alexi Hawley exclusively told Us in May. “Sort of navigating the pitfalls of him blowing up their relationship and the real work he had to do on himself and her prioritizing and ultimately figuring out how to forgive him and all that kind of stuff.”
Hawley noted that “cementing that conversation at the top of the next season and figuring out what the right next step is” for Chenford is a priority.
During Friday’s press event, Hawley teased that relationships will play a big part during season 8’s story line.
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“We are all very invested in Chenford,” the showrunner said. “I would say that there’s some relationship stuff that is surprising, without spoiling anything or driving people too crazy on the internet.”
Hawley concluded, “Our show really tries to live in the unexpected, so every episode we’re trying to do stuff that you don’t see coming.”
Season 8 of The Rookie will premiere on ABC in 2026.
English (US) ·