After meeting on the set of Dawson's Creek in 1997, Katie and Joshua had a brief romance between 1998 and 1999. They remaining on the show playing love interests Joey and Pacey until the series concluded in 2003, and their characters even ended up together.
During a September 1998 interview with Rolling Stone, Katie alluded to her relationship with Joshua, and she had nothing but good things to say about her ex. "I'm just going to say that I met somebody last year," she said. "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. It's weird, it's almost like a Dawson-and-Joey type thing now." Katie later told Us Weekly in September 2012 that Joshua was her "first love" and that she even reached out to him after her divorce from Tom Cruise.