'Gilmore Girls' Star Jared Padalecki, Who Played Dean, Says He's "Team Jess" in the Best Boyfriend Debate

Interestingggg.

Presenters Jared Padalecki, Alexis Bledel and Milo Ventimiglia for Choice TV Reality Scariest Moment
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Jared Padalecki, who played Dean Forester in Gilmore Girls, is actually Team Jess in the best boyfriend debate.

"I'm Team Jess. Yeah, I am," Padalecki told E! News when he was asked where he stood at Steel City Con. "Funnily enough, Milo [Ventimiglia is] a buddy, and he's Team Dean, and somebody sent me a meme—in his office in his house, he has his, like, Emmy nomination alert letter, and on the bottom corner it's like, 'Team Dean Forever' and so I drew my own, like, 'Team Jess Forever' with markers, and I was like, 'Same, Milo, like samesies, but for you!'"

Asked where he thinks Dean would be today, Padalecki told the reporter, "Working at Doose's Market. Hiding all the cornstarch."

As the Walker actor noted, it's not the first time he's made his feelings known on the issue. The anecdote he was talking about happened sometime circa 2021, with Padalecki taking to Instagram at the time to post a picture of himself holding a sign that said "I <3 JESS 4EVER" alongside a photo of Ventimiglia's "I <3 DEAN 4EVER" message.

Recently, Gilmore Girls actress Keiko Agena, who portrayed Lane Kim, revealed she totally agrees with Padalecki, telling E! News, "I pretty much have stayed a team Jess person this whole time. And I don't think I'm gonna change."

In case you've somehow read this far without knowing what I'm going on about, on Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) had three main love interests throughout the show's seven seasons: Dean (Padalecki), Jess (Ventimiglia), and Logan (Matt Czuchry). To this day, fans are squabbling as to who the best boyfriend was out of the three, even though it's completely obvious that the correct answer is Jess. Tut tut.

Iris Goldsztajn
Morning Editor

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.