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"I'm like, 'Wait that's so mean. I would never want to do that to Chace!'" the actress told Crawford.
Rachel Bilson and Chace Crawford are taking a look back -- way back -- at the time when there were rumors that they were dating.
On Monday's episode of Bilson's "Broad Ideas" podcast, Bilson addressed the past romance rumors, which were fake, admitting that she's wanted to "clear the air" with Crawford for years.
During the episode, the longtime pals first recalled hanging out together in NYC back in the 2000s, with Bilson revealing she had a bit of a crush on Crawford at one point.
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View Story"I remember, this was probably ... maybe 12 years ago, 13 years ago, there was a time in my life where I was on a break from my boyfriend at the time, and my friend Nicole ... was on a break from her relationship," began Bilson, 41, who was seemingly on a break with Hayden Christensen at the time.
"We were all in New York together and we were all hanging out and stuff. And Nicole and I, silently, to ourselves, were battling for Chace's attention. ... We were totally vibing each other," she continued, joking that she and her friend were "trying to c---block" one other.
"We were, totally, for sure in competition for you," Bilson later added.
Crawford, 37, laughed, noting that he didn't "pick up on any of that" at the time.
The "Gossip Girl" alum said he remembered that specific night, recalling how they were at the Boom Boom Room in New York City, which he said "had the great cheeseburgers."
Bilson then pivoted to something she's "always wanted to tell" Crawford: what went down on her side of things when there were romance rumors between the two of them.
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"Someone saw us talking or something and the press went with, 'Oh, did Rachel and Chace hook up?'" she said. "My publicist came to me with it and at the time, because I was on a break from my serious relationship, I was like, 'Dude, you have to kill this rumor.'"
"I freaked out," Bilson continued, admitting that she felt that denying the romance was "f---ed up" and "so mean" towards Crawford.
"They printed it, but it had a quote from my publicist, like, 'This is completely fabricated and blah blah blah,'" she told Crawford. "And I'm like, 'Wait that's so mean. I would never want to do that to Chace!"
But it looks like "The O.C." star didn't need to feel guilty about the whole thing as Crawford admitted that didn't know anything about the romance rumors at the time.
"You're so nice. I didn't even realize that this all went down," he said with a laugh, jokingly adding, "I would have been thrilled [if] they thought we were dating!"
Bilson noted that she was "happy" she was able to "clear the air" even though it's so many years later.
"It's crazy. That was like 15 years ago," Crawford said. "New York was so much fun back [then]."
