{"id":820291,"date":"2026-07-24T06:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/820291\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T06:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:32:13","slug":"new-zealand-actor-kj-apa-reveals-famous-co-star-punched-him-in-the-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/820291\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand actor KJ Apa reveals famous co-star \u2018punched\u2019 him in the face"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand<\/a> actor KJ Apa<\/a> revealed his famous co-star once \u201cpunched\u201d him in the face, back when the rising actor was battling a drug addiction. <\/p>\n

The 29-year-old said the punch was a \u201cwake up\u201d call from his Riverdale<\/a> co-star and close friend, revealed to be former Disney star Cole Sprouse<\/a>, 33. Apa opened up about his addiction on the Wildmen Podcast<\/a> this week. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New Zealand Riverdale star KJ Apa recalled the incident on the Wildmen podcast.\u00a0YouTube\/@WildmenPodcast<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hit me because we were in a strip club and at this time, I was doing a lot of drugs,\u201d Apa recalled. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my close friends were worried about me, and he had learned that I was doing drugs again and … it was a love punch,\u201d he revealed. <\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s twin brother Dylan Sprouse<\/a>, who co-hosts the podcast with Brendan Columbus, confirmed the incident was true because he was there. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no bad blood between \u2018brothers\u2019 Cole Sprouse and KJ Apa. \u00a0Instagram\/@kjapa<\/p>\n

\u201cI made the mistake of trying to chase after you,\u201d said Dylan as Apa confessed he was off \u201ccrying behind you\u201d.<\/p>\n

The co-host put it down to both Apa and Dylan having a \u201cbeautiful\u201d and brotherly bond while filming the hit teen drama. <\/p>\n

Apa skyrocketed to fame playing Archie Andrews across seven seasons Riverdale which ran from 2017 to 2023. Dylan took on the famous role of Jughead. <\/p>\n

Further in the podcast, Apa admitted that after Riverdale ended he didn\u2019t even know if he liked acting, and the \u201cfirst step\u201d to clearing his mind was \u201cgetting sober\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had so many things that I was doing that was so unhealthy,\u201d Apa recalled at a time he was \u201cexperiencing fame\u201d for the first time. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

KJ Apa rose to fame as Archie Andrews on Riverdale. \u00a0Warner Bros Television<\/p>\n

The actor revealed he has been sober for a year and a half now, but it\u2019s been six years of \u201con and off\u201d. <\/p>\n

He has credited the change his life to the birth of his son Sasha in 2021<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand actor KJ Apa revealed his famous co-star once \u201cpunched\u201d him in the face, back when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-820291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}