Rachel Bilson and Rami Malek Clear Air After He Asked Her to Remove Pic of Them Together

Considering how poorly things went after Rami Malek first asked Rachel Bilson to take down a picture of them from their time together in high school, it's easy to see why she kind of panicked when the press ran away with the story after she shared it publicly.

Bilson may have thought she was just sharing an innocent story when she shared the anecdote about her teenaged friend Malek last month on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast, but she had no idea it would become a pretty big entertainment news story.

"My friend sent me a CNN link to it. I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Bilson said on the "LadyGang" podcast.

As the story quickly began to circulate throughout the media, Bilson said she started to get anxious, and she even went to therapy that day about it, saying she was "mortified" and suffered a "panic attack."

"I was like, 'I am having anxiety. I did not want this to resurface in this way. I feel so bad. Oh my god. Rami is going to think I'm doing this again,'" Bilson shared.

The "again" refers to the initial 2019 incident where she tried to share an innocent enough pic of the two of them together from their time as fast friends in high school, where they co-starred in a stage production of "The Crucible."

While Bilson treased Malek a bit for his '90s style, the Oscar nominee (for "Bohemian Rhapsody") was apparently not impressed at all, DMing her. She said he didn't say hello or attempt to reminisce at all, instead just telling her, "I would really appreciate if you take that picture down. I'm a really private person."

His reaction then got her anxious, too, as she said his stylist told her it wasn't a great picture of Malek. She removed it and even apologized to him with a message, but says she never heard back.

So this time, when the story resurfaced and didn't paint a picture of Malek's behavior any more flattering than the photo supposedly was, it's understandable she quickly worried he'd get upset again, and she might get another terse DM.

As it turns out, though, she told the "LadyGang" that the two did reconnect in a more meaningful way over the story blowing up the way it did. "Rami and I actually have talked since that came out," she said. "He connected with me, and we're all good."

"He was so sweet and we're totally fine now and we talked about it and we're good," she said, adding, "He was so gracious, and I totally understood where he was coming from and he understood me."

Ultimately, she was happy that they "were able to squash it and, like, move on." Plus, it was just nice to reconnect with her friend without it being awkward.

"It actually turned out to be a good thing for a reason, because we were able to reconnect and, like, make it better and everything is great," she said happily.