It's been two months since The White Lotus season 3 finale aired, and we finally have an answer to the show's most gripping cliffhanger: Why did Walton Goggins unfollow Aimee Lou Wood on Instagram? The actors, who starred as doomed lovers Rick and Chelsea in the most recent season of HBO's hit show, finally denied their rumored feud in a new joint interview with Variety.
“There is no feud,” Walton insisted. “I adore, I love this woman madly, and she is so important to me.” He continued to praise her talent, comparing her to Goldie Hawn and Meg Ryan. “She can do anything, and she will. You watch what the next 20 years of her experience will be,” he said. “She's special. There is no feud. She is love and I know that I am that to her. We care about each other very deeply.”
But what about the unfollowing on Instagram? The reposting of the SNL White Lotus sketch that made fun of Aimee's teeth? And the awkward interview where Walton apparently refused to talk about Aimee? There's an answer for all of it.
Why did Walton and Aimee unfollow each other on Instagram?
Rumors of a feud were originally kickstarted in April by their White Lotus co-star Jason Isaacs, who suggested that “friendships were lost” on the set, which then inspired internet sleuths to go look. Soon, fans realized that Walton and Aimee didn't follow each other on Instagram, despite following every other main cast member. It turns out there's a simple explanation for the unfollowing: Walton and Aimee simply don't care about social media!
“Why is everyone obsessing over Instagram? That is irrelevant,” Aimee told Variety. “We don't give a shite about Instagram.”
As for Goggins, he said that he unfollowed Aimee as a way of letting go of the character of Rick. “My catharsis in this experience was different than other people's, because of my history in this place. I knew what we had gone through, and I knew how close that we had gotten, and I needed to begin to process saying goodbye to Rick and Chelsea,” he explained. “And I knew that that was going to take a while for me, so I let her know, this is what I've gotta do. And she was extremely supportive about that.”
Walton added that he took a step back from “everyone” in the cast. “I haven't spoken to anyone. I couldn't handle it. Judge me or don't. I don't give a fuck what you think. This is my process,” he continued.
You might be wondering why, then, Walton didn't feel the need to unfollow the rest of the White Lotus cast. He didn't specifically answer this question, but he did say that he was closest to Aimee throughout production and that he kept his distance from group hangs on set. Make of that what you will.
Why did Walton share SNL's White Lotus sketch even though Aimee had called it out?
Per the article, Walton was exhausted, working on Fallout, when he saw the White Lotus skit and reposted it without knowing the context. When he found out the next day, he deleted the story because he did not mean to cause any harm. If he did, he said, we'd know. “If I'm gonna say something, but I'm gonna say it to your face,” he insisted. “I don't use social media in any way, and I'm not a mean guy.”
Why did Walton refuse to talk about Aimee in his interview with The Times?
Walton and Aimee's supposed feud made headlines in May after the actor refused to talk about their relationship in an interview with The Times. After the interviewer, Ed Potton, asked a few more times about Aimee, Walton abruptly ended the interview.
He told Variety that he didn't want to speak for Aimee and alleged that the interviewer had rudely asked if he and Aimee had bonded over their teeth. “What he was insinuating, it was so disgusting. It was so appalling. I was flabbergasted,” he said.
Where do Walton and Aimee stand now?
Now that the feud rumors have been put to bed, it seems that Walton and Aimee are just as in awe of each other as their gushing social media posts would suggest. They even re-followed each other on Instagram mid-interview. “It's all so ridiculous,” Walton said of the Instagram drama. “It's just saying goodbye to this character so that now Aimee and I will be friends for fucking ever.”
