Exclusive Interview
How ‘Second Chance Love’ Made Matthew Lawrence & Chilli’s Romance Stronger Than Ever (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Matthew Lawrence and Chilli are hosts of the new Hallmark+ show Second Chance Love.
- The real-life couple dished to Swooon about their relationship and what they loved about filming the show together.
- Plus, Lawrence recalled having a “crush” on Chilli years ago, and the duo revealed if they’d ever star in a Hallmark film.
Matthew Lawrence and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas are teaming up professionally to host the new Hallmark+ series Second Chance Love. The show reunites five former couples for a second chance at making it work, and while Lawrence, 45, and Chilli, 54, didn’t date back in the day themselves, they’re able to relate because of the heartbreak they went through before finding each other in 2022.
The couple opened up to Swooon about filming the show and how it strengthened their relationship. Plus, Lawrence even surprised his girlfriend with a story about how he was crushing on her back in the day.
“I had a weird thing happen, I gotta be honest,” he admitted. “This was way, way, way back in the day. Because I grew up in the industry, I know it’s common to be like, ‘Oh, you have a crush on somebody in the entertainment industry,’ but for me, it wasn’t, because they were my peers and people I knew. I just didn’t have crushes like that. But I did with [Chilli], which is really weird.”
The TLC singer was caught off guard. “You did not tell me you had a crush on me!” she insisted. “You didn’t say that.”
As Lawrence explained, “It wasn’t like that. It was almost stranger than that. It was almost like it felt real for a few days. I had seen some writeup or some magazine [article] about you, and it just felt different. That’s what I mean. It wasn’t a Hollywood thing. It just felt interesting. I’m like, ‘Am I crazy?’ I think I was a teenager and I was like, ‘Matt, what are you doing?'”
The couple filmed Second Chance Love in Sardinia, Italy, and gushed over how “beautiful” the experience was, which helped their own relationship. “Drawing back to a place like Sardinia, it’s hard not to have this rejuvenation or connection when you’re in a place like that,” Lawrence explained. “We got to spend some really good time together, quality time together, outside of work. We found this one restaurant and we got really close to the people who were working there. It kind of felt like we belonged there for a minute. It was kind of like family. It was cool. It was a wonderful experience.”
View this post on Instagram
Now that they’ve worked with Hallmark, which they loved, Chilli said she’d love to produce a movie for the network that stars her boyfriend. “But if there’s a kissing scene, I’m just going to walk out of the room,” she admitted. Lawrence agreed, adding, “We couldn’t do that. We’d have to have sans kissing scenes.”
As for what makes their relationship work, Chilli and Lawrence said that they “complement” one another. “There’s this real peace that comes along with knowing [her],” Lawrence shared. “I’ve never had it before. It’s really awesome and it feels quite amazing.”
His girlfriend added, “I think what I have learned is that as long as you’re patient, which is a hard thing for me, I’m not a very patient person. But patient as in not settling in a relationship and how you want your partner to be and all of that. I got a lot of flack over the years. I could care less about that, but people would say, ‘She wants this, she wants that, it’s not realistic,’ and all this crazy stuff. I’m like, no! It is realistic! So that’s what I learned. You just have to stay faithful to it and just keep praying, which I always did and still do. Sometimes those prayers are answered.”
Check out the video above for more from our interview with Lawrence and Chilli, where they discuss their favorite moments from Second Chance Love, plans for 2026, and more!
—Reporting by Rebecca Perlmutter
Second Chance Love, Season Premiere, Thursday, January 1, Hallmark+
