Highlights
- Katie Holmes liked an IG comment saying she and Joshua Jackson “should be a couple”
- The two are co-starring in Holmes’ new film Happy Hours, premiering at Tribeca in June
- Holmes and Jackson briefly dated in 1998–99 during Dawson’s Creek
A like is not a love letter. But try telling that to the internet.
Katie Holmes set off a small social media earthquake this week after the actress-filmmaker quietly hit the like button on several Instagram comments suggesting she and her former Dawson’s Creek costar Joshua Jackson should be in a romantic relationship. No statement. No denial. Just a double-tap and chaos.
The April 16, 2026 Instagram post featured a photo of Holmes with her arms around Jackson, 47, as the pair smiled for the camera. “We are so thrilled to be a part of the Tribeca Film Festival this June with our film Happy Hours. So many beautiful people worked on this project. And working with Josh again was a dream,” she wrote in the caption.
The comments basically wrote themselves. Fans flooded in immediately, with one writing, “Please get married in real life and heal our millennial hearts.” Another added, “Could you be anymore gorgeous together?”
Then came the likes. Among the flood of responses, Holmes reportedly liked comments including one that read, “They should be a couple,” and another wishing the post was a “hard launch.” Cue the meltdown.
For the record, the two are not dating. Holmes’ rep did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But none of that matters when nostalgia is involved.
Happy Hours, premiering at Tribeca on June 6, is a New York City-set drama about two former lovers reuniting “years after their relationship ended without closure.” Holmes wrote, directed, and stars in it. Life imitating art? The fans certainly think so.
Jackson has been openly effusive about the project. “Katie wrote this beautiful story for the two of us,” he said on the Today show in March. “There are these people in your life — she’s a lifelong friend now — and for us to be able to go back and do this again, and, honestly, for her to be able to create that space for us was kind of magical.”
Jackson also previously addressed their closeness while discussing James Van Der Beek‘s cancer diagnosis. “Busy [Philipps] and Michelle [Williams] are very, very close. And Katie and I are very close,” he said during an April 2025 appearance on the Dinner’s on Me podcast.
Holmes and Jackson dated for a year, from 1998 to 1999, during the early days of filming Dawson’s Creek, before continuing to work together until the WB teen drama wrapped in 2003.
Back in 1998, a young Holmes was characteristically candid about the whole thing. “I’m just going to say that I met somebody last year,” she told Rolling Stone. “I fell in love, I had my first love, and it was something so incredible and indescribable that I will treasure it always. And that I feel so fortunate because he’s now one of my best friends.”
Nearly 30 years later, the feeling’s clearly mutual. Whether it’s anything more than that? Well, that’s what the likes are for.
MORE POP CULTURE HEADLINES
