After months of speculation, Maxton Hall‘s Harriet Herbig-Matten finally revealed whether she is dating her costar — and onscreen love interest — Damian Hardung.
During the Thursday, January 15, episode of the “G Spot” podcast, Herbig-Matten, 21, was asked about the fan rumors concerning her and Hardung, 26, to which she replied, “It was difficult. We are not together and we weren’t together either.”
The German actress said she wasn’t ready for questions about her personal life after Maxton Hall‘s overnight success.
“It was a crazy experience and it is also clearly such a love story [on the show] and you promote that. But I think I really underestimated it and I think I was also a bit naive,” she admitted. “Because I didn’t really know where it was going.”
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When Maxton Hall premiered in May 2024, Herbig-Matten didn’t realize how viewers would latch onto her off-screen bond with Hardung, adding, “I also didn’t know how big it was going to get. I didn’t know that people believed it so much and that it was such a thing.”
The frustrating aspect was strangers online weighing in on Herbig-Matten and Hardung’s dynamic.
“When you always read these comments about how we are so together, I started to get pressure that it had to be true. So I was like, ‘Only when that is the case, I will do people justice and then they will be happy,’” she explained. “I thought that for a long time. Then over the course of time, I had to learn to distance myself from this version.”
Herbig-Matten continued: “There’s Ruby and there’s Harriet who is promoted. So you know that this person who is me and has my name is not the real Harriet that I am in my private life. I first had to learn that this doesn’t correspond to reality and that was difficult.”
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Hardung and Herbig-Matten were catapulted into stardom when Maxton Hall found record-breaking success by being the most-watched non-U.S. title during its first week on Prime Video. It was renewed for a second season one week after its debut.
At the center of the series is an unlikely enemies to lovers romance between Ruby (Herbig-Matten) and James (Hardung). The costars previously revealed that their dynamic off screen mirrored their characters.
“I think in our first audition, he had come into the room and he had this suit on and I was like, ‘Who’s this arrogant boy there?’ But in our second and last audition, it just clicked and we had tension,” Herbig-Matten exclusively told Us Weekly in June 2024. “So we had chemistry, we just didn’t see that.”
Hardung, meanwhile, recalled building trust with Herbig-Matten over time.
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“We had a very interesting dynamic while shooting. Because we were literally just going through everything that the characters were going through,” he shared with Us that same month. “Whenever we knew the next day we’re gonna have a shoot where we hate each other, we literally didn’t talk the night before. If we knew the next day we’re gonna be best friends then we went out for dinner together.”
Herbig-Matten also reflected on the “intense emotions” that came with her “first time playing a love story.”
“And as I said, it was really easy with Damian and I,” she told Us. “We are two different people and we are good friends and we have a good connection. It’s really important to treat your connection [well] but to set boundaries as well as an actress and an actor.”
Hardung broke down the commitment that went into portraying James and Ruby’s relationship, saying, “That chemistry, it has to be felt. It’s really just about taking every emotion seriously. You have got to be honest about those emotions and I love that.”
Maxton Hall is streaming on Prime Video.
