Brian Austin Green and Tiffani Thiessen were one of the “it” couples of the ‘90s — and it all started with a chance meeting after he saw Saved by the Bell.
“I was like, ‘Oh I don’t stand a chance. I’m reaching way above my weight class on this one,” Green recalled of having a crush on Theissen during an April 2025 episode of his “Oldish” podcast. The actor noted that when he did reach out to Thiessen, he was surprised she was interested in him. “I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever,’ because I’d never dated anyone before I’d never put myself out there as I did with her.”
The twosome eventually began dating in 1992 and Thiessen ended up joining the cast of Green’s hit TV series, Beverly Hills, 90210, in its fifth season. Green played David Silver, while Thiessen filled a void as Valerie Malone after Shannen Doherty’s Brenda Walsh left the show.
After three years of romance, the pair called it quits in 1995.
Green moved on with another 90210 costar Vanessa Marcil from 1999 to 2003. The twosome welcomed son Kassius in 2002. He later married Megan Fox in 2010, and they welcomed three sons together: Noah, Bodhi and Journey. Following their split in May 2020, Green began dating Sharna Burgess. The couple welcomed their first child, son Zane, in June 2022, and got engaged the following year.
Thiessen, for her part, married actor Brady Smith in July 2005. The twosome share daughter Harper and son Holt.
Keep scrolling to learn more about Green’s relationship with Thiessen:
1992
Thiessen and Green started dating the same year after they got introduced by mutual friend David Faustino while Thiessen was starring on Saved by the Bell and Green was on 90210.
July 1993
The pair attended the premiere of Rising Sun at the Academy Theatre in Los Angeles.
November 1993
Thiessen and Green were all smiles while attending the Hollywood Christmas Parade.
Brian Austin Green dated many of his past costars before finding love with Dancing With the Stars alum Sharna Burgess. Fox previously dated Beverly Hills, 90210 castmates Tori Spelling, Tiffani Thiessen and Vanessa Marcil during his tenure on the teen drama. He later moved on with Megan Fox after meeting on the set of Hope […]
December 1993
The former couple posed for pictures on the red carpet at a party for the Sunset Blvd musical.
1994
Thiessen joined the cast of 90210 season 5 alongside Green as Valerie Malone, which made Green jealous.
“I’d never been in a real serious relationship before,” he said on Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast in March 2024. “I was incredibly jealous every time she would f***ing have to work with anybody else because we’d already been doing the show for four years. Like, this is my family.”
1995
Thiessen and Green split, but continued to work together on 90210. Following their split, their characters, David and Valerie, began dating on the show for one season.
2015
Thiessen shared on The Meredith Vieira Show that her first onscreen kiss with 90210 costar Luke Perry was “awkward” because of Green being present.
“Literally having your boyfriend on the show and then literally kissing another man,” she explained. “‘I get paid for this, honey. I don’t know what to tell you.’”
Morgan Pansing Photography Tiffani Thiessen’s teen daughter, Harper, has been watching some of her mom’s old shows — and so far she’s not impressed. “Recently she’s like, ‘I’m going to give 90210 a try,’ and she could not sit through it,” Thiessen, 50, exclusively told Us Weekly at the VOW for International Day of the […]
The actress noted that her and Green “made it work,” adding that they are “still very close and good friends.”
March 2024
Green opened up about how it was difficult having Thiessen join 90210 at the time.
“I’d never been in a real serious relationship before,” he shared on an episode of Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast. “I was incredibly jealous every time she would f***ing have to work with anybody else because we’d already been doing the show for four years. Like, this is my family.”
Green shared that he “used to bring Tiffani to evens so she knew everybody from then and then all of a sudden she’s doing sex scenes and s*** with people that were like my family and my brothers.”
“It was strange. I remember I was really just f***ing jealous and boisterous,” he recalled, noting that he couldn’t “imagine” what it was like for her back then. “I can’t imagine what it was like for her being with me for three years at that point and then having to do these scenes and having her f***ing boyfriend, who she lives with by the way, freaking out the way that I was.”
May 2024
Shortly after Green discussed his challenges over Thiessen joining 90210, she admitted she “had a lot of different emotions” about that time in her life.
Tori Spelling and Brian Austin Green’s friendship goes way back. The pair, who starred on Beverly Hills, 90210 together from 1990 to 2000, famously portrayed love interests Donna and David, respectively, on the long-running Fox drama, and they dated in real life at the start of the series’ run. Though they have a close friendship […]
“I had a boyfriend who definitely was probably not the most secure with me being there,” she told Us Weekly exclusively at the time. “I also had my own insecurities about being on a job that, again, was very established. There were relationships that were super close that I wasn’t a part of. It was definitely stressful and hard.”
Thiessen noted that she was “proud” of how she “handled” everything and she doesn’t “hold any grudges” towards Green because they were “young and stupid.”
“We’re both adults,” she said. “I mean, our split was pretty amicable. It was easy, like, truly. He moved on. I moved on, and we had to work together.”
April 2025
Green revealed during an episode of his “Oldish” podcast that he didn’t know Theissen would become a series regular on 90210.
“I had no idea she was going to replace Shannen at that point and her story line is going to be this [big] … and it was just the hardest thing in the world,” he explained, noting that the “set was [his] home” and he had trouble with Thiessen coming on the show. “This was more of a complete family, and I was there all day long every single day so all of a sudden she comes in and she’s working with people, not with me.”
Green called her joining the series “an invasion” of his “space” and what “had become so dear” to him as a kid.
“That show was so crazy, and nobody understood it like the other people on the show. Nobody would get it. So it was a really special bond,” he admitted, revealing that Thiessen becoming part of the cast full-time “for sure” was the “downfall” of their relationship.
“I was so incredibly jealous of story lines,” he said. “There was just absolutely not a shred of maturity in the way I dealt. I was a wreck.”
The actor shared that by the time Thiessen’s character on the show started to date him they were already broken up.
“I can’t imagine how hard that was for her. The excitement of, ‘Oh, I’m going to go work on the show!’ and it just becoming so miserable to be there,” Green continued. “She knew how horribly it was affecting me and us. And she wasn’t writing the scripts — she couldn’t do anything about it.”
Green confessed that Thiessen had a “front row seat” to see the “relationship go away” because the tense on-set dynamic follow them home to their joint apartment.
“I want to share my life with someone but at the same time it’s my space, so it’s hard for me to be like, ‘Yeah, let’s make a decision together,” Green explained. “I’m definitely not the best at cohabitating and being a partner in that way.”
