No, Rachel Bilson and Nick Viall weren’t an item (Picture: Nick Viall/Instagram)

It turns out Rachel Bilson and Nick Viall were never actually in a relationship after all.

The O.C. actress and former Bachelor star were romantically linked in 2019 after exchanging some flirty messages on social media, but now they have admitted it was all to try and publicise a podcast that never saw the light of day.

Appearing on Nick’s podcast The Viall Files this week, Rachel admitted: ‘No, Nick and I never dated’,” Rachel admitted March 21 on Nick’s podcast The Viall Files, with him adding’, while he added: ‘We did troll the internet.’

Rachel revealed they were just ‘messing around—not together, but I mean with the internet,’ and he explained: ‘[We were] epically single and we wanted the attention.’

She also clarified the situation never ‘got to a point’ where they decided to actually date, with the fake romance being sparked after they ‘became good friends’ when he appeared on his podcast four years ago.

They thought about doing a spin-off podcast together, and Nick explained: ‘It was going to be called Making Love With Nick and Rachel. I had an Instagram saved already for it. Then she got some gig, and then she bailed on me.’

The pair have come clean (Picture: Nick Viall/Instagram)

With the podcast falling through, it meant their bogus relationship also hit the rocks as Rachel pointed out: ‘It was literally to get attention for the podcast. It was like, “OK, it’s a tease-up to what we’re doing.” Even though it didn’t come to fruition, that was the intention.’

Elsewhere on The Viall Files, the 41-year-old actress also addressed recent comments she made during an intimate chat with comedienne Whitney Cummings, as she admitted that she was only able to orgasm through penetration once she ‘was about 38’.

Nick explained the fake romance was meant to promote a podcast which never saw the light of day (Picture: Presley Ann/Getty Images for eko)

Rachel also set the record straight about her orgasm comments (Picture: Araya Diaz/Getty Images)

Now, she has clarified the situation after plenty of speculation surrounding various exes.

‘I had Whitney Cummings on my Broad Ideas podcast and she was explaining to me that she got off birth control and at 40 she was able to have an orgasm through sex,’ she told Nick. ‘I just jumped on that and I was like, “When I was older I was able to do that too.”‘

However, she added: ‘It has nothing to do with any partner… It had to do with me knowing my body.’

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‘Apparently there were names brought up in both regards and I am not OK with that, because it had nothing to do with that,’ she continued, while Nick added: ‘We’re not shaming any exes.’

She quickly joked: ‘Or giving a trophy to any other exes. Nobody was involved other than myself.’

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Setting the record straight!