Joey and Jacob met on the set of Netflix's The Kissing Booth in 2017 — where they played girlfriend-and-boyfriend Elle and Noah — and dated for over a year before deciding to go their separate ways in 2018. Since breaking up, the exes have filmed both the second and third movies in the trilogy, which were shot in tandem.
Joey first addressed the awkwardness of working with her ex during an October 2019 episode of the podcast Mood With Lauren Elizabeth, explaining it was a "sacrifice" she was willing to make for the sake of their fans. She added, "It was a wild experience. But honestly, it was a really beautiful time. Because I learned a lot about myself and I grew as an actor. I grew as a person on this." She expressed a similar sentiment during an August 2020 interview with Cosmopolitan, saying of the experience, "No one's thinking to themselves, 'That was easy,' because it wasn't."