A low-budget indie film about teenage vampires didn’t just launch a multibillion-dollar franchise. It ignited a global obsession. A cultural phenomenon so massive, it transformed Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson from rising stars into the most watched couple on the planet.

“I told Rob, ‘Don’t even think about having a romance with her. She’s under 18. You will be arrested.’”

Virtually overnight, tabloid after tabloid, headline after headline—every moment of their lives were dissected to the point their love story became a *product* to sell. Nowhere was safe for Rob and Kristen from the paparazzi. A lesson a teenage Kristen would learn the hardest way possible. One singular set of photos would halt Kristen’s rising career in its tracks as she would become the most talked about cheating scandal in Hollywood history.

The world was Team Edward and Team Jacob.

But Kristen was Team Rob.

So grab your floaty, vampire fangs, and a snack. Let’s dive into how Hollywood’s most famous couple of 2008 launched into superstardom—and how Hollywood attempted to send Kristen Stewart’s rising star tumbling to the ground before it could even shoot off.

On June 2nd, 2003, a stay-at-home mom named Stephenie Meyer had this very vivid dream. It took place in a meadow. A human girl. A vampire who had fallen madly in love with her. The dream was so intense, Stephenie just couldn’t shake it. So she wrote it down, and before she knew it, she had written all of chapter thirteen.

What she didn’t know that night was that she was in the midst of creating a cultural phenomenon that would change pop culture forever. A book series called *Twilight*.

Before the first book had even been published, the manuscript caught the eye of a producer who brought it to MTV Films. They snatched up the movie rights on the spot. An entire script was developed—but it was so far off from the book that Stephenie Meyer said they could have filmed it and *not* called it *Twilight*.

Think an action movie where Bella was instead a long-distance runner complete with high-speed jet ski chases from the FBI. Basically, MTV thought the book was too romantic and they wanted to also capture a male audience.

When *Twilight* officially released in 2005, it immediately debuted at number five on the *New York Times* bestseller list. Right away, it started to garner a massive teenage cult following through forums, fanfic communities, and on MySpace.

Despite the rapidly growing fandom, MTV didn’t think the market was right for a vampire-werewolf teen movie. So the rights went back up on the market.

Summit Entertainment—a then small independent studio—thought *Twilight* was the perfect project. They were looking for a female-driven franchise that could compete with the success of *Harry Potter* while also being much cheaper to develop. The budget was $37 million USD, which in the blockbuster world is considered low. Summit couldn’t afford a bunch of special effects, so they had to really rely on the love story.

That’s when they brought in Catherine Hardwicke to be the director.

“There’s a great deal of pressure knowing how important this is to the fans, how personally they take it,” Catherine said. “Stephenie wrote such a cool book, and I wanted to just make that real, make it visual, make it exciting, lift it off the page from words into just a thrilling experience that you felt like you were there.”

 

Catherine was on the hunt for the perfect Bella and Edward. If they were going to turn a low-budget indie film into a smash hit, the casting had to be absolutely perfect.

While reading the script, Catherine was already envisioning Kristen Stewart as Bella. She had just watched her film *Into the Wild* and was blown away. So she flew all the way to Pittsburgh, where Kristen was in the middle of filming *Adventureland*. They did a quick informal audition, and Catherine instantly knew she had found her Bella Swan.

Casting Edward Cullen, on the other hand, was a completely different story.

Catherine spent almost an entire year auditioning nearly 5,000 men and couldn’t find anyone who could capture Edward’s intense, tortured, brooding energy.

That is—until Robert Pattinson.

“Casting the Wolfpack definitely had its challenges,” one producer recalled, “but it was nothing compared to what Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke had to go through to find the perfect Edward and Bella. Thousands of people came out to audition for the part.”

One thing Rob told me: before *Twilight* came around, he was seriously thinking about quitting acting and pursuing his music career. A little-known fact: Jackson Rathbone, who played Jasper Cullen, actually auditioned for Robert’s role. It’s also a little-known secret that Rob Pattinson almost didn’t even *get* an audition. He had self-taped in London and sent it in, but the studio didn’t have money to fly people in. So one producer got on the phone with his agent and said, “If you want him to have a chance, he needs to get to Los Angeles.”

In an interview, Rob said he wanted to do *Twilight* because of Kristen Stewart. He knew she was the lead actress. He was a fan of her previous work.

And he had a bit of a crush on her.

All that was left was for him to fly to LA to do a chemistry read. A very bizarre one that took place on Catherine’s bed, where they said all of two lines before having to make out.

“Remember the day?” Catherine later said. “This is the table that Rob and Kristen met. They sat right at this table and did the biology scene. Then we went back to my bedroom and they did the kissing scene on my bed, and I’m in there filming it. At the end of the day, Kristen goes, ‘It has to be Rob.’”

Rob described it this way: “Basically I turned up not really knowing what was going on. Catherine said, ‘Okay, we’re going to do this scene which I hadn’t prepared for—which is basically just making out with the lead actress on her bed, on the director’s bed, with her filming it.’ The only people there, no one else around. Just literally about three lines in the scene and making out for like two hours.”

“You started to feel like there is this crazy connection,” Catherine added. “He just understood the character in a way that nobody else did. Everybody else came in trying to play the perfect guy, and he was the opposite of that.”

 

While the film was in development, more books in the series started to release and hit the shelves, making the fandom grow to unimaginable numbers. So when this new fandom initially found out that Rob was cast as Edward—it’s hard to imagine now—they were *not* happy.

He was not at all who they envisioned to play the part.

“When we cast Robert, we had immense feedback that was negative from the fan base saying, ‘You’ve made the biggest mistake on the planet,’” a producer recalled.

People were like, “That guy’s not even on the short list. He looks like a freak.”

Within a week, there was a petition on the internet saying, “This is Edward Cullen and we have to stop this.” And there were 75,000 signatures on this online petition.

Seventy-five thousand.

But the haters were quickly seduced by Edward’s charm. “Yeah, I think it sort of changed when the trailer came out and stuff,” Rob admitted. “And now, you know, people want to have my babies and stuff.”

The *Twilight* trailer was the first real hint of what was coming. It premiered on MySpace, racking up over 3 million views. And for MySpace days, that was massive.

Then when *Twilight* premiered on November 21st, 2008, fans lined up for hours at theaters across the entire country for the midnight showing. That’s when Rob and Kristen got the first glimpse into just how much their lives were about to change forever.

“That is crazy,” Kristen said, watching the screaming crowds.

“I think they’re a little bit excited,” Rob joked.

“Everyone’s like wet in their pants.”

Something tells me that you guys have a lot of fans, a reporter said. “I’m afraid to even look around there.”

“I know, I know,” Kristen replied. “They’re all really nice. They’re all really great. They’re all my age, too.”

“I’ve never seen a premiere like this,” Rob said. “I mean, this is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.”

“How’s it for you?” the reporter asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t even—I’m not even really here. Like, my body is here, but my brain is like, I don’t know where it is.”

*Twilight* grossed $397.8 million USD worldwide. It was an instant smash hit, catapulting both Rob and Kristen to a level of fame they had never expected and certainly didn’t want.

When they signed on to the project, they thought they were doing an indie film. They had no idea it would amass such an intense cult following.

With any huge fandom comes toxicity. Rob was now the heartthrob. And it wasn’t just teen girls who were obsessed with him. It was also Twilight moms. The obsession quickly escalated and just got really weird. The lines between reality and delusion definitely started to get very muddy. And you could just tell how freaked out Rob and Kristen were by the whole thing.

 

Call it Twilight Mania.

At malls from Dallas to Seattle, San Francisco to Philadelphia, young fans by the thousands are barely able to control themselves. “We were all here very, very early yesterday and slept through the night until 7:00 in the morning because of my life. The reason for my existence, and I love him.”

And it’s not just kids. Even Twilight moms are lining up.

“He is the perfect man. He’s honest. He’s protective. He’s caring and loving even though he’s a vampire.”

Rob recalled: “I had some girls come up to me the other day who’d pre-bitten themselves. So they were bleeding when they came up, and they’re like, ‘Look, we’re already bleeding. Can you just lick a little bit of blood?’ No. Uh, okay.”

“You said yes?” a reporter asked.

“No, I didn’t say yes.”

“So you want Rob to marry you?” another reporter asked a fan.

“I’m going to marry him.”

“If you’re watching this, Robert Pattinson, marry me.”

“I love you, Edward. When he comes, I’m going to die. I’m going to scream. I’m going to cry.”

“Do you believe in vampires?”

“I do. They sparkle.”

“Yes. I believe they’re really out there. Everyone thinks I’m crazy, though.”

A reporter asked Rob: “I could never imagine that thousands of girls would show up at a Stephenie Meyer reading and screaming and crying and tattooing themselves with the titles and women naming their babies after the characters in the books. Take a look out that window. That is just a few of the fans that seem to be following you guys wherever you go these days. Did you have any idea what you were in store for when you signed on for this film?”

“No.”

“A big no.”

“No way.”

“Yeah, that’s a conclusive no. I’m a little scared to face them. They’re all pretty nice.”

“To your face,” the reporter laughed.

“Do you get a lot of weird questions from the fans when you’re out there? What’s it like to kiss a vampire? Kristen, is it true that they said to you that they will give you their blood?”

“Oh, yeah. Oh my God.”

“Do you find him incredibly sexy or what is it?”

“Yeah.”

“But what is the appeal? It’s a vampire.”

“Um, yeah, but it’s Edward Cullen. I mean, come on.”

 

Some of these fan interactions—from being mobbed at hotels to being asked to bite people—was a contributing factor to how much Rob seemed to hate *Twilight*. Now, you have to remember this was a lower-budget movie, so Rob probably didn’t get a whole lot of media training. Because of that, we got to see his unfiltered feelings during the first press junket.

“I was convinced that Stephenie was convinced she was Bella,” Rob said. “And especially when she says it was based on a dream and it’s like, ‘Oh, I had this dream about this really sexy guy,’ and she just writes this book about it—it’s like, this woman is mad.”

He kept going. “I was trying to think of an analogy earlier. I was thinking, you know, it’s something about some guy if he says like, ‘Listen, I’m going to kill you,’ it’s something really attractive about that. I was like, yeah, I mean, I really can’t see it. If Edward was not a fictional character and you just met him in reality, you know, he’s one of those guys who’d be like an axe murderer.”

“When you put the bare facts out,” Rob continued, “he tells, ‘I’ve killed forty or fifty people,’ and he’s like, ‘You really shouldn’t. And I want to kill you so much. Every single day, every moment I’m with you, I desperately want to kill you.’ And she was like, ‘I don’t care. I love you.’ Well, there’s definitely something wrong with her. And there’s very obviously something wrong with me. He’s like, what am I doing with this kid? I’m 108 years old.”

It was also during the press junket when fans started to notice Kristen and Rob’s offscreen chemistry. They were both awkward yet really flirtatious with one another. Just the way they interacted seemed almost like they were a couple in real life.

“Like, how’d you guys get to know each other?” a reporter asked. “Did you like go out and, you know?”

“We sat around my dining room table for like two entire nights with the script,” Kristen said.

“Two nights. It was more than two nights.”

“No. Yeah, it was actually all pre-production. But there was two nights that were actually like—”

“Yeah.”

“Productive.”

“Could you fall for each other in real life?” the reporter pressed.

“We don’t really get on at all,” Rob deadpanned. “At all.”

“Sounds real cheery.”

“Yummy.”

 

Now, the chemistry between you and Kristen is amazing, another reporter said to Rob. “What did you do to kind of perfect that? Because I read that you followed her around for days and you proposed to her. Is this true?”

“Oh, yeah. We were going to get married for a long time.”

“What about her boyfriend? Do you know?”

“Who cares?”

“What about the boyfriend?”

“Yeah. What about the boyfriend?”

“So have you really got a big crush on her?”

“Well, I have no idea. I mean, she’s a really good—I mean, she’s a friend of mine. I mean, I don’t really have—”

“She really got no idea,” Kristen interrupted.

“Is it true that he kept proposing to you on set?” another reporter asked Kristen.

“You know, he got a little—we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. I think he said that to a lot of people in his life, really, so I don’t feel too special.”

This is when the rumors that Kristen and Rob were more than just co-stars first started to circulate. Despite their very visible chemistry, Kristen was actually in a three-year relationship with Michael Angarano. And according to Catherine Hardwicke, Rob and Kristen never crossed that line during the first film.

Still, no matter how much they denied it, the speculation never stopped. For the next year, their *are they or aren’t they* dynamic was everywhere. And when filming for *New Moon* began, the paparazzi and headlines went absolutely wild.

After *Twilight*’s insane box office success, Summit Entertainment wasted no time securing the film rights to every remaining book and rushing straight into production for *Twilight: New Moon*. But that caused director Catherine Hardwicke to walk away from the film because she didn’t want to compromise her creativity for the now intense studio pressures and deadline.

Also, on the set of *New Moon*, something else began to shift.

Kristen and Rob started getting closer. All of a sudden, the line between Bella and Edward and Kristen and Rob started to get blurry.

Now, really think about it. They had just blown up to so much success. There weren’t that many people that either of them could trust. So having someone you have a lot of chemistry with who’s going through the exact same thing as you—it made for the perfect storm.

 

But before we get into all that, we have to take it back to January of 2009—two months before filming was set to begin. Robert Pattinson was now considered the most desirable man on the planet. There became an obsession over who he could possibly be dating. His every move was under a microscope, and he quite literally could not leave his house without being stalked by paparazzi and fans.

This is when outlets like E! Online, *OK!* magazine, and the *Daily Mail* started linking Rob and Nikki Reed together. They were reportedly inseparable, being spotted out at bars, parties, restaurants, and even hotels. But they needed to keep it all very secret because of fears of the fandom not being able to make the distinction between real life and the film.

“Just last week, the *Twilight* crew was snapped in Vancouver behind the scenes of their very first week in production,” an E! reporter announced. “Kristen tells E! that while she’s a bit nervous filming a sequel to the cult phenomenon, it’s all for the die-hard Twihards.”

“You always feel the pressure though before you do a movie,” Kristen said. “It’s like, of course you don’t start it unless you want it to be good and people to like it. This one is only going to be better, I think, because we’re all getting that much more into it. So, you know, I’m excited.”

Now, fast forward to March. Everyone’s back in Vancouver to shoot *Twilight: New Moon*. And as you can imagine, with the whole cast finally being reunited, rumors started flying. Whispers of a secret love triangle between Rob, Kristen, and Nikki started making their way through the Twilight fandom.

But at first, these rumors were completely untrue. Kristen was still very much with her boyfriend Michael, who was constantly flying in to visit her on set. In one interview, when Kristen was asked if all the fans wanting her and Rob to get together had hurt her real-life relationship, she said it hadn’t, and that Michael’s “not the threatened kind of guy.”

When asked about Robert, she stated, “They covet him. I think half of them are so jealous that they hate me.”

What made all of this even messier was the friendships involved. Back then, Kristen and Nikki were best friends. They were constantly spotted out together grabbing sushi, shopping, and even sharing cigarettes. Michael had also been close with Nikki for years. They had filmed the movie *Lords of Dogtown* together back in 2005. So while they were all in Vancouver, Nikki, Rob, Kristen, and Michael became a really tight-knit group, going out to dinner or after-parties on what seemed like double dates.

 

But everything would seem to change around May of 2009 when the cast headed to Italy to wrap up filming.

Now, remember: Rob isn’t in *New Moon* much. Most of Edward and Bella’s big romantic scenes take place in Italy. And based on the timeline, this is when Rob and Kristen likely started becoming more than just friends.

See, around the same time, rumors started swirling that the two were secretly dating. And nothing gets past Twilight fans. They noticed Kristen hadn’t been seen with her boyfriend in weeks, and that her and Nikki were no longer being spotted out together by paparazzi.

A crew member from *Twilight* even spilled to a reporter that even when they were both in their respective relationships, the spark between Kristen and Rob was magnetic. But Nikki was in love with Rob, and he dumped her to get with Kristen.

All of this combined fanned the flames and made rumors explode that there was all this serious tension brewing between Nikki, Kristen, and Rob.

Over the years, Nikki has responded to the love triangle rumors a myriad of different ways, going from flat-out denying it ever happened to being a bit more cryptic about the entire situation. She said, “The media turned everything into a competition between all of us. It was really unfair. We were so young and figuring things out.”

In another interview, she stated that the fandom had done a number on all of them, and she wished people hadn’t made assumptions about her personal life with Rob. Later on, she did admit that they weren’t all best friends anymore like they were in the beginning, and that all the success of *Twilight* completely changed their dynamic.

By August, reports of a real-life *Twilight* romance were absolutely everywhere. While Michael and Kristen stayed silent, their breakup was confirmed when he was seen out with a mystery brunette. And with Rob being photographed leaving Kristen’s house, Twilight fans were officially convinced that the two were together.

“Well, the proof is in our pictures,” a reporter announced. “We spotted Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart holding hands while leaving the airport in Paris. It was nighttime, but there’s no mistaking it. And while we can’t say for sure what the palm action really means, KStew and our RPatz are determined to keep the exact nature of their friendship on the down-low as they promote the steaminess that is Edward and Bella in *New Moon*, out November 20th.”

 

As award show season rolled around, Rob and Kristen were absolutely dominating the headlines and the red carpets. They were spotted leaving the same bungalow at the Chateau Marmont. They photographed separately at the Teen Choice Awards but left together for a romantic weekend. They were even caught getting cozy at a Kings of Leon concert. It felt like every week there was new Robsten headlines.

And with the *New Moon* premiere just around the corner, fans were absolutely losing it. So Rob and Kristen would awkwardly lean into the chaos at the MTV Movie Awards, teasing the crowd with an almost kiss.

“I need to remove my gum,” Rob said on stage, pulling out his gum as Kristen leaned in. The crowd erupted.

But there was one major problem with Robsten actually becoming a real couple.

The studio really didn’t want them to get together, and their relationship was reportedly dividing the cast. Of course, there was the issue of Nikki and the tension that was going to create on the set of *Eclipse*, as well as the gossip magazines completely taking over the cast’s lives. But according to Ashley Greene, what the studio really feared was a messy breakup that would impact Rob and Kristen’s on-screen chemistry—or the way fans viewed them altogether.

They still had three more movies to film, and there were literally billions of dollars on the line. So they needed to keep their relationship as discreet as humanly possible. It was a very delicate situation. While a relationship would completely promote the movie and send it to new heights, it also could cause the entire franchise to come crashing down.

During PR for *New Moon*, any questions related to Rob and Kristen were not allowed. Period. If they were even asked, the interview would be completely shut down.

“What do you say to your fans who are desperate to know about you and your co-star Kristen?” a reporter asked Rob. “What can you tell them?”

“What can you tell them about it?” Rob deflected.

“Tell them to watch that question,” his publicist interrupted.

“Well, you can’t ask that question to the guy.”

“It’s his co-star. It’s a fair question.”

“Thank you very much,” Rob said flatly.

“So I was just cut off for the first time ever,” the reporter noted. “The thing I can say to them is watch *New Moon*. It’s amazing.”

 

When the second *Twilight* movie, *New Moon*, released on November 20th, 2009, it shattered records. Millions of fans across the country waited in line for the biggest midnight opening in history. You could probably hear the screams from miles away when Jacob took his shirt off at theaters across the globe.

At the time, this movie was one of the most successful premieres in box office history, grossing $258.8 million USD in only the first five days.

“Get ready to see hordes of starry-eyed teens and tweens camped outside your local movie theater,” one news anchor announced. “The long-awaited *Twilight* sequel, *New Moon*, opens this Friday, and if last night’s premiere in Hollywood is any indication, it’s going to be a huge hit.”

Rob Pattinson’s heartthrob vampire is back.

“When I’m like eighty, I’ll be able to sort of show these videos to my grandchildren and just think, like, this is how surreal my life was when I was twenty-three years old,” Rob said.

*New Moon*, the sequel to *Twilight*, couldn’t premiere fast enough for fans who camped out for days. “I took a vacation day to be here,” one fan said. These die-hard fans have a name for themselves: Twihards.

“You’re much hotter than Robert Pattinson,” a fan shouted.

“I got a call saying that fans are starting to camp out, and this was like five days in advance,” Rob recalled. “And I was like, what? I’ll never be able to experience something like this again. So this is really quite extraordinary.”

“Ticket sales are already over the moon,” a reporter said. “One website says advanced sales for *New Moon* are already the biggest in movie history.”

The *Twilight* craze had officially taken over 2009. You were either Team Edward or Team Jacob. It was no longer just a movie. It was a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Stores were packed with *Twilight* merch—from shirts, sweaters, jewelry, iPod skins, Barbies. Even Burger King got in on the action.

I remember my sister’s fifth-grade teacher having a big poster of Jacob, and another teacher in her grade having a big poster of Edward. They would always wear Team Edward and Team Jacob shirts separately. They even gave out bookmarks where Jacob’s shirt would come on and off. It was a really weird culture for the time.

Rob and Kristen weren’t just movie stars anymore. They were the *it* couple. You couldn’t walk through a school in 2009 without seeing folders, binders, pencil cases—their faces were everywhere. To Twihards, Robsten had become the real-life Edward and Bella, catapulting their relationship into a level of public fame neither of them ever even wanted.

 

“Are they or aren’t they a couple?” a reporter teased. “It’s the question we’ve been asking ourselves for months.”

“It didn’t happen on the first movie,” Catherine Hardwicke reiterated. “Nothing crossed the line while on the first film. I told Rob, ‘Don’t even think about having a romance with her.’ A then seventeen-year-old Kristen. ‘She’s under eighteen. You will be arrested.’”

2010 was peak Robsten mania, and for two people who valued their privacy more than anything, the fame would become an absolute nightmare. Kristen and Rob were hounded and harassed by the paparazzi. If they even set foot outside of their homes, there was someone there with a camera ready to snap and sell a photo of them.

It got so out of control. The paparazzi would speed after them down highways, driving recklessly just to get a shot. It got to a point where Rob and Kristen would have to take cover at police stations just to get away.

It wasn’t just the paparazzi that were the problem. Even though Rob and Kristen never technically confirmed their relationship, Robsten was plastered across every gossip and teen magazine. The headlines were nonstop.

At first, it was cute stories about how in love they were and how they had secretly moved in together. But sweet love stories aren’t where the money’s at. So the headlines started to escalate. Suddenly, it was fake engagements, constant pregnancy speculation, claims that Rob had cheated with his *Remember Me* co-star, breakup stories, makeup stories, and even a secret wedding in England.

It was absolute chaos.

“Paparazzi, which I know has got to be so frustrating as they hound you every time you walk out your door, especially if you’re with Rob,” a reporter said to Kristen. “How do you deal with that?”

“I’ve had to sort of tell myself to just get more comfortable with it because it’s not going anywhere.”

“When people are constantly berating you and asking, ‘Are you and Rob dating?’ what goes through your mind, and what do you say to them?”

“When asked, ‘Why don’t I make my life easier and just say why?’” Kristen replied. “Do you think it would stop there? Like, they would continue. It’s not like they would say, ‘Okay cool, we’re going to stop waiting outside your house, we’re going to stop following you around.’ It’s not going to happen. So I’m going to keep it to myself.”

 

2010 and 2011 would mark a massive turning point for both Rob and Kristen’s careers. *Eclipse* had become another $700 million USD box office hit, and they were gearing up to spend six straight months filming *Breaking Dawn* Parts One and Two back-to-back.

But behind the scenes, they were desperate to break free of the *Twilight* mold. Rob even joked in an interview that he didn’t want to play a vegetarian vampire forever. So he started scoring new roles in films like *Water for Elephants* and *Cosmopolis* to prove he wasn’t just Edward Cullen.

Kristen was also on the same exact mission. She signed on to the indie film *On the Road* and then landed the leading role as Snow White in *Snow White and the Huntsman*, marking her official transition into more adult blockbuster stardom.

“Well, this is the beginning of the end, so to speak, of this amazing blockbuster franchise,” a reporter said to Kristen. “How does that feel for you?”

“I don’t know yet,” Kristen admitted. “I mean, it’s kind of a relief in some ways because I don’t have to just constantly keep working like every three months, you know, going back and doing another *Twilight* after. I mean, because I kept cramming in movies in between. But in other ways, I mean, I’ve lost a safety net.”

“Luckily, it feels good because I think that we’re all at a place where it does feel done,” Rob added. “I mean, I feel like I got to experience everything—everything that I anticipated, everything that I built up to. Yeah. Happy and be ready to move on.”

“Yeah, exactly. And hold it as something you want to remember. So it’s not going anywhere.”

“Twihards will cherish it for decades and decades and decades,” the reporter said. “It’s not going anywhere.”

Filming for the entire *Twilight* Saga wrapped in April of 2011. Now that filming was officially over, Kristen and Rob started to get more comfortable being affectionate with each other out in public—something they had strictly avoided for the last two years. All of a sudden, they were seen kissing, wrapping their arms around each other.

And Kristen finally confirmed their relationship with *GQ UK*, saying, “It’s so obvious.”

 

“You might call this Los Angeles Tent City: Occupy Twilight,” a news anchor announced. “A camp-out for hundreds of *Twilight* fans so devoted they’ve been dubbed Twihards. *Breaking Dawn Part One* is already breaking records.”

*Breaking Dawn Part One* was the moment every Twihard had been waiting for. The wedding. The steamy honeymoon scenes. The pregnancy. And just like always, the storyline bled right into Kristen and Rob’s real life. Suddenly, every magazine was claiming that they were actually engaged.

The headlines were so believable, Rob’s own mom had to call him to see if it was true. Rob said in an interview, “It’s not—at least not yet. But it is true that Kristen has always done something to me that others haven’t.”

It just seemed like right when they finally got comfortable in the spotlight and let the world in just a little—it would all come crashing down in the most public way possible, igniting an internet media firestorm.

In May of 2012, Kristen kicked off a worldwide press tour with the *Snow White and the Huntsman* cast, including director Rupert Sanders. The movie was a box office hit, and Kristen was riding the biggest career high of her life. But according to insiders, it was on that media tour when Rupert—a forty-one-year-old married father of two—started getting far too close to Kristen.

Fast forward about two months to July. Kristen was back in LA with Rob. They were doing Comic-Con panels together and even showed up to the Teen Choice Awards on July 22nd, hand in hand, looking very happy.

Which is why what happened just two days later shocked the entire world.

On July 24th, 2012, *Us Weekly* dropped a bombshell cover.

**KRISTEN CHEATS ON ROB.**

Inside were exclusive photos of Kristen and Rupert making out in a car and all over each other at a park. It was undeniable. They were caught red-handed.

 

Robsten has been one of Hollywood’s hottest young couples for over three years. *Forbes* magazine’s highest-earning actress and *Glamour* magazine’s sexiest man in the world, three years running. They have a notoriously private relationship.

These steamy pictures released by *Us Weekly* Tuesday reveal that instead of Team Edward versus Team Jacob, these days it’s Team Pattinson versus Team Sanders. The snapshots apparently show twenty-two-year-old Kristen Stewart stepping out on her on- and off-screen beau Robert Pattinson with her *Snow White and the Huntsman* director Rupert Sanders—a forty-one-year-old married father of two.

Rupert’s wife and mother of his two children, Liberty Ross, was also in *Snow White and the Huntsman*—playing the mother of Kristen Stewart’s character.

“News of the scandal is hitting legions of Twihards well, hard,” a reporter announced.

“I can’t believe she would do this,” one fan sobbed in a YouTube video that went viral.

There were even tweeted death threats like this one: “If it’s true that Kristen Stewart has cheated on Robert Pattinson, I will personally kill her.”

Today’s *New York Daily News* headline called Kristen every name in the book. Even Lady Gaga was going gaga about Kristen’s bad romance. Today she tweeted: “Geez, this cursed Stew-Rob stuff is brutal. Makes me sad the way press acts. Hope they’re okay.”

“Oh, don’t even get mad,” one commentator said. “Your chick chose him. You go ahead and get you another one, dog. That’s how it rolls. Get your gigolo status on.”

“I listen, I don’t know what it means to the *Twilight* franchise,” another said. “I just don’t know. I’m sure it’s going to be fine.”

“IT’S NOT GOING TO BE FINE EVER.”

“Your girlfriend cheated on you,” a late-night host joked. “You’re like the best-looking guy in the world. It’s like, oh man, I must be bad in bed or something. What the hell happened? I’m good-looking. It can’t possibly be true that she left me for some old dude.”

 

Yesterday, Kristen Stewart issued a surprisingly public confession to Pattinson—whom until now she had never publicly acknowledged even dating. In the statement, Stewart apologized to “the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him. I love him. I’m so sorry.”

Soon after, Sanders also released his own apology, saying, “I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family.”

Another blow this morning to stunned fans as Kristen Stewart’s betrayed boyfriend, Robert Pattinson, has just reportedly moved out. These photos taken on Thursday show a cargo van leaving the driveway of the home the *Twilight* co-stars shared.

“What happens next personally for Kristen?” a reporter asked an industry analyst. “Does this hurt her? Does this hurt the box office?”

“Out of the two of them, to be honest, she had the more promising career in terms of short-term potential. Most recently, ironically, *Snow White and the Huntsman*—the film in which she met this director—had done very, very well at the box office, and he’s had less success outside of *Twilight*. So she had a very promising future ahead of her. This could definitely hurt that. And no matter what, in November, when the final *Twilight* movie comes out, there will need to be a lot of publicity done, and now there will be a massive elephant in the living room.”

Everything Summit had feared when Rob and Kristen first got together had just happened. *Breaking Dawn Part 2* was only months away from release, and their two biggest stars were at the center of a full-blown scandal.

The Twilight fandom had turned on Kristen instantly. She was called every name in the book—from a slut to a home wrecker.

It’s hard to put into words just how massive Kristen’s cheating scandal was. Like, you honestly had to be there. It was 24/7 coverage. You could not turn on your TV or go online without seeing it.

That’s when Kristen would completely disappear. She skipped every red carpet, didn’t promote her film *On the Road*, dropped out of the leading role in the movie *Cali*, and got written out of the *Snow White* sequel.

 

Looking back over a decade later, Kristen took almost all of the heat, while Rupert—who was her boss and nearly twenty years older—got nowhere near the same level of backlash.

As for Rob, he was actually hiding out at Reese Witherspoon’s home to escape the media. He had found out about the affair along with the public and needed some time to process. But after a few weeks of hiding, he was thrown right into the *Cosmopolis* press tour, where every interviewer tried to get him to address the scandal.

“Are you all right?” a reporter asked gently. “Is everything okay? I’m worried about you.”

“I literally don’t even know how to approach this now,” Rob said, trying to laugh it off.

“Because it’s a mess. Last time I had a bad breakup, Ben & Jerry’s got me through some of the tougher times. So I thought you and I could bond over this.”

“I know you know this,” another reporter pressed. “I got to get the elephant in the room out of the way. Everybody just wants to know—how are you doing? And what do you want your fans to know about what’s going on in your personal life?”

Rob sighed. “I mean, literally, I like my fans to know that Cinnamon Toast Crunch only has thirty calories a bowl, for instance. Like, I mean, literally, I don’t know. Pretty much everything that comes out of my mouth is irrelevant. No matter what, you know, people are going to read things into it.”

“So you don’t want to talk too much about it?” the reporter asked. “Is that the way you handle all of this craziness?”

“It’s a different thing. You get into it to do movies. I mean, I’ve never been interested in trying to sell my personal life. And that’s really the only reason people bring it up.”

 

By the time September rolled around, all signs pointed to Kristen and Rob possibly finding their way back to each other. On the fourth, Kristen’s *Vogue* spread dropped, even though the interview was technically done before the scandal. It may have caught Rob’s attention—he had been ignoring her up to this point.

This interview was the first time Kristen had ever publicly proclaimed her love for him.

“My God, I’m so in love with my boyfriend,” she said. “I think I want to have his babies. I love the way he smells—and he loves to lick under my armpits. I don’t get the obsession with washing the smell off—the smell of someone you love. Don’t you think it’s the whole point?”

It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that just days after this interview hit stands, Kristen was photographed wearing Rob’s clothes at LAX. Right after, reports started coming out that they were talking again and meeting up in secret.

“The time: this morning, one thirty a.m.,” a reporter announced. “The place: the Hollywood bar Harvard & Stone in Los Feliz. Rob and Kristen seen together for the first time since she was unfaithful last June. They were there with ten friends, all cozied up into one booth, smiling, laughing. They were very affectionate with one another. There was no tension at all.”

*Us Weekly* now reporting that the couple’s living together again. But there are conditions.

“Rob really does love her,” a source said. “He wants to give her a second chance. Kristen is trying all that she can do.”

“They will be mad at us if we don’t ask you,” a reporter said to Kristen. “And they follow your life, and they want to know—are you back together with Robert Pattinson?”

“Funny you mentioned that,” Kristen replied. “I’m just going to let people watch whatever little movie they would like to think our lives are and go for it. You know, keep them guessing, I would say.”

 

Many fans speculated that they reunited for PR reasons. Others were upset that Robsten were back together at all.

But no one was more upset than Donald Trump, who went on a days-long Twitter tirade.

“Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog and will do it again. Just watch. He can do so much better.”

“Lots of response to my Pattinson-Stewart reunion. She will cheat again. 100 percent certain. Am I ever wrong?”

There were many, many more tweets just like this.

Anyways, Rob and Kristen had gotten back together just in time for the *Breaking Dawn Part 2* press junket, and they didn’t seem any more awkward than usual. Despite everything—the scandal, the pressure, the non-stop headlines—Rob and Kristen still stood together on the *Breaking Dawn Part 2* premiere carpet.

Many were worried that the drama would somehow ruin the movie. But it didn’t. Instead, it became the highest-grossing film in the entire *Twilight* saga, pulling in over $829 million USD worldwide.

And as the credits rolled for the last time, it marked the end of the entire *Twilight* era.

But now that it was all over, what did that mean for Robsten moving forward?

With the *Twilight* saga finally behind them, that meant the endless press tours, red carpet events, magazine covers, and interviews also came to an end. The cast had just gone through four years of their lives under an intense microscope—from the fandom to the paparazzi—and they were both ready to completely step away from the chaos to focus on themselves, their relationship, and how to move forward with their careers post-*Twilight*.

It had now been six months since the cheating scandal shook the entire world, but Kristen and Rob still couldn’t escape it.

 

In January of 2013, Rupert’s wife, Liberty Ross, officially filed for divorce, thrusting the scandal right back into the headlines.

“Obviously, it was his widely publicized affair with Kristen Stewart that prompted it all,” a reporter noted. “The British model eventually pulled the plug on the ten-year marriage for the sake of her own happiness, claims the report. She found that she just couldn’t forgive Rupert for cheating on her with Kristen, especially since it caused such public embarrassment.”

This was all happening as Rob was about to head out to Australia for two months to film his next project, *The Rover*. According to many reports, Rob wanted to use this time as a trial separation from Kristen, so they could both clear their heads. And in that time, the media went into overdrive, speculating on Robsten’s on-again, off-again relationship.

However, they would temporarily shut down the “Trouble in Paradise” rumors when Rob returned to Los Angeles in March of 2013. They were spotted looking very in love on a date at a karaoke bar. They were then seen one month later at Coachella, where onlookers said they seemed really happy.

“Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson take their love to the desert,” a *Celebuzz* headline read. “According to sources, they were seen kissing and holding hands during Radiohead.”

“Why are Rob and Kristen so afraid to get snapped kissing in public?” another outlet asked. “Do you think they are just shy, or is this part of their *Twilight* contract?”

Right when Rob and Kristen’s relationship appeared to finally be back on track, everything would blow up again.

In May, they flew to New York. Kristen was attending the Met Gala, and while Rob didn’t attend with her, they did spend a few days together in the city. Around the same time as their New York trip, contradictory articles started coming out. The first was that Kristen had reached out to Rupert several times after his divorce, wanting to meet up. However, another report said Rupert texted Kristen several times, but she ignored his romantic advances. And then *Hollywood Life* reported the two were “sexting.”

Now, who knows if any of these reports are true. Regardless, it yet again brought the affair back into the headlines. It was the story that wouldn’t go away.

 

Everything between Rob and Kristen was becoming rocky because of the current news cycle. And when they returned to LA, everything came crashing down.

Kristen had planned a birthday party for Rob, inviting all their friends over to swim, drink, and have a good time. But Rob wanted nothing to do with the party and completely blew it off. This sparked a huge argument between both of them.

Multiple insiders said that Rob just couldn’t move past Kristen’s cheating and hung it over her head constantly. Kristen was in a place of either “we move past this or we don’t,” giving Rob an ultimatum.

Ultimately, though, they couldn’t move past it. And the birthday party argument would be the fight that officially ended Rob and Kristen’s iconic relationship.

The breakup rumors and headlines started to run wild. From speculation that Rob had turned to Katy Perry as more than just friends, to Kristen apparently dating Rupert after the breakup. None of this was ever confirmed and could all just be tabloid fodder. But it was absolutely everywhere.

“Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are going through another breakup,” a reporter announced. “And this time it’s serious.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Rob has packed up his belongings and his dogs in his red pickup truck and moved out of her house.”

“Nice trash bags, Rob.”

“But now we’ve learned there’s a little more to this story,” another reporter added. “The Sun is reporting that while Kristen was taking a shower before that birthday party she had planned for him, Robert picked up her cell phone to take a photo of something and in came a text from Rupert Sanders.”

“Wow.”

“Kristen Stewart showers. Wow.”

“One of Kristen Stewart’s friends drove her to Taylor Swift’s house,” another outlet reported.

“What? Taylor Swift is now the go-to when you break up with somebody,” a commentator laughed. “Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber broke up, and Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift started hanging out. Now Kristen Stewart’s broken up with Robert, and so she’s going to Taylor Swift’s house. I think they’re all just sharing a magic pair of pants.”

“I heard that he landed in some very soft arms,” another said. “Katy Perry was seen with Robert Pattinson. They left the Met Gala together, and they’ve been seen out to dinner laughing and enjoying each other.”

“I guess that means you’re dating now. You think she’s waiting in the wings?”

“Yeah, she kissed a ghoul and she liked it.”

 

For the next couple of years, both Rob and Kristen would take a similar path—far, far away from Hollywood. They’d become way too familiar with worldwide fame. After everything they’d been through—the fame, the fans, the headlines—they were so done.

Their passion wasn’t fame. It was actually making movies.

Both of them shifted their careers to indie films, which really allowed them to gain some control back of their private lives. Because remember, a lot of this tabloid fodder about Rob and Kristen was being fueled by magazines and movie production studios, all trying to cash in on the drama that was very real. For an indie film, it didn’t require the same amount of promotion.

Rob even said in an interview that he had no plans to do any major blockbusters or franchises like *Twilight* because of what they did to his personal life.

Even though they had both managed to finally remove themselves from being the center of every gossip magazine, their past relationship followed them everywhere. And in the rare interviews they did do, the question always circled back to each other.

“It’s official,” a headline read. “Robert Pattinson is over his troubled relationship with Kristen Stewart. In an interview with British *Esquire*, the Hollywood heartthrob opened up about being cheated on, saying, ‘Sh*t happens, you know. It’s just young people. It’s normal.’ And honestly, who gives a sh*t?”

After the 2012 scandal, Kristen really struggled with fame because for her, it had always been negative or fear-based—which is a major reason why she didn’t come out for so many years and kept her then long-term relationship with Alicia Cargile under wraps. She didn’t want it to be trivialized by the media.

She told the *New York Times*, “People wanted me and Rob to be together so badly that our relationship was made into a product. It wasn’t real life anymore. And that was gross to me. I was so publicly consumed that it became this weird toxic thing.”

She told the *Sunday Times*, “The slut-shaming that went down was so absurd. And this idea that I wasn’t allowed to be messy or make a mistake like everyone else.”

 

Fast forward to 2017. For the first time, Kristen would fully address the scandal on camera. It was for *SNL*. And Rob actually thought her opening monologue was hysterical.

“I’m here to promote my movie *Twilight*, which this week has been on iTunes for eight years,” Kristen said on stage. “I’m a little nervous to be hosting because I know the president’s probably watching, and I don’t think he likes me that much. Here is how I know. Four years ago, I was dating this guy named Rob—um, Robert—and we broke up and then we got back together, and for some reason it made Donald Trump go insane. Okay, so to be fair, I don’t think Donald Trump hated me. I think he’s in love with my boyfriend.”

The audience howled.

“So yeah, that’s crazy, right? Um, the president is not a huge fan of me, but that is so okay. And Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now because I’m hosting *SNL* and I’m like, so gay, dude.”

In 2019, nearly seven years after the end of *Twilight*, Kristen finally made her return to blockbuster films with the hit movie *Charlie’s Angels*. So she had to go on a typical press junket tour—where one of the stops was the *Howard Stern Show*.

Now, if you’ve seen our past deep dives, you know Howard does not hold back when it comes to questions. The interview was over an hour long, and a majority of the questions were about the *Twilight* era. Usually, Kristen would find a way to avoid answering. But this time she fully opened up all about what happened with Rupert, Rob, and losing a major movie role.

“*Snow White and the Huntsman*,” Howard said.

“That movie made like half a billion dollars,” his co-host noted.

“Did really well. Yeah,” Kristen agreed.

“And then they didn’t ask you to be in the sequel.”

“Um, we lived in a different time then. You know what? I feel like now, the shaming that went down was like so absurd. And they should have put me in that movie. It would have been better. Not to be a dick, but—”

“So you’re saying there was slut-shaming of you?”

“Well, they didn’t put me in that movie because I went through a highly publicized scandal, so they were scared of touching that.”

“Not to put you in a sequel because you fell in love with the director?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with the director. But affair? Yeah, it was a weird—yeah, it was kind of a weird thing.”

“So you were blamed for you not being in the second movie just because you had sex with somebody? That’s what you’re telling me?”

“I did not f*ck him,” Kristen said firmly.

“Oh, you didn’t f*ck him. Okay. This is the most candid interview.”

“No, I didn’t even—”

“Oh, so why don’t then why not clear that up? Why not say that?”

“Well, who’s going to believe it? It doesn’t even matter. I’m honestly—I feel like you do, and I actually feel like this is the most honest setting I’ve ever been involved with.”

“So why did you get pegged as—you were dating Rob?”

“Because it looked like—you know, you make out with a dude in public. It definitely looks like—yeah. I mean, look, it wasn’t innocent. It was a really hard period of my life. I was really young and I made some mistakes.”

“When *Twilight* came out, what were you, about twenty-one, twenty-two?”

“I was eighteen.”

“You were eighteen.”

“Yeah.”

“And the way they’re covering your romance with Robert Pattinson and all this—I had him on the show. He was talking about—he said no relationship could survive the intense scrutiny that we were under. It was insane.”

“Yeah, it was. I mean, we wanted to keep it ours. And so it was like this thing of going, well, do you live openly and share your life in a way that actually entitles you to living it sort of more freely and naturally? Or do you put it on lock because you hate the idea of perpetuating this commodified version of something that feels real to you? And then you actually deprive yourself of so many experiences. Like, we didn’t walk down the street holding hands because we didn’t want to give it to them. But then we didn’t get to walk down the street holding hands.”

 

Rob also returned to major blockbuster films with *Tenet* and *The Batman*. Despite still being asked about the *Twilight* Robsten era, he’s always remained way more silent, just acknowledging that him and Kristen shared this unique experience. And he’s always praised Kristen publicly.

“Real-life exes Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson saw each other back in May when Kristen crashed Rob’s birthday bash,” a reporter announced years later.

“I went to Rob’s birthday party recently,” Kristen said in an interview. “I kind of crashed with my friend. And then Kristen crashed it too. She rang the bell at the gate. ‘Is it cool if I come?’ He says, ‘Of course.’ You know, he’s such a lovely person. That was just a few months ago. It was just like, ‘Oh my God.’”

“Did you all reminisce?” the interviewer asked.

“We all hugged each other. It’s like, ‘This is so crazy and cool.’”

Rob and Kristen having an unexpected mini-*Twilight* reunion at his thirty-seventh birthday felt like a full-circle moment. Both of their lives look completely different now from when the saga first began back in 2008. Rob welcoming his baby girl with Suki Waterhouse and Kristen marrying Dylan Meyer just this year.

For a long time, they tried to outrun their *Twilight* past, even pushing against it. But now, as the cultural phenomenon has turned into nostalgia, they look back at it from a different lens. Stunned by how what was supposed to just be an indie project blew up into a massive franchise that has truly stood the test of time.

In the end, Robsten didn’t just define a generation.

It branded a moment in pop culture history that will never disappear.

The blue filter. The meadow. The line between fiction and reality that got so blurred, nobody could tell where the movie ended and their lives began. They were never just co-stars. They were never just a couple.

They were a product. A spectacle. A warning.

And somehow, after all of it—the $397.8 million opening, the 75,000 signatures on that petition, the paparazzi chases down LA freeways, the cheating scandal that broke the internet, the death threats, the *Vogue* confession, the birthday party that ended everything—they both made it out alive.

Not intact. Not unchanged.

But alive.

And maybe that’s the most *Twilight* ending of all.