The Summer I Turned Pretty author reveals fake Belly/Jeremiah scenes filmed in Paris

19 September 2025, 16:07

By Katie Louise Smith

Belly and Jeremiah reuniting in Paris? It was fake. It was all a trick set up Jenny Han to hide the true ending of The Summer I Turned Pretty.

If you got tricked by the viral TikTok videos of Belly and Jeremiah in Paris, you might be entitled to compensation. The Summer I Turned Pretty author Jenny Han has now confirmed that those scenes were, in fact, fake.

After it was revealed that the end of the TV series was different to the books, The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3's final three episodes were kept under lock and key. But when the cast and crew started filming on location in Paris, it became more and more difficult to keep things hidden from the public.

True enough, fans who spotted Lola Tung filming on the streets of Paris with Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno quickly shared their videos on social media, claiming they'd seen spoilers for the final episodes.

While some of them were convinced they'd figured out who Belly ended up with, Jenny was lying to them the whole time.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the author has revealed the lengths production went to to conceal the show's true ending.

• Read more: The Summer I Turned Pretty fans spot major movie easter egg in final episode

Turns out, production flew Gavin Casalegno out to Paris for one sole purpose: To trick readers and viewers when it came to the truth about Jeremiah and Belly's relationship.

"We did have Gavin come out so that we could have some stuff with him in Paris, just because I like to keep surprises for the audience," Jenny revealed. "That's really hard in this day and age. As movies get filmed, people see the whole movie, and I think it takes away from some of the excitement around it when you have all these spoilers. So that was my way of trying to protect the story for the audience."

While the cast were filming, those fake scenes ended up flooding social media. One video shows Jeremiah hugging Belly (still clad in her airport outfit with backpack and suitcase). Another shows Gavin sitting by the banks of the Seine as a production member quickly covers him up with an umbrella.

Jenny also went on to confirm that they didn't even write any news scenes for Belly and Jeremiah — they just added several random ones on to actual scenes in the show while filming, purely for convenience.

No dialogue was written or spoken, because those scenes would never be aired. (So if you're wondering if they will be released as deleted scenes... the answer is no. They are not real scenes at all!)

"They were like, 'Hey, we're going to fly you out to Paris and you're going to film some scenes,'" Gavin told the outlet. "I was like, 'I don't know why, but sure. I'm down.' I got to spend like a week or two out in Paris, which is not bad at all. I really enjoyed it."

He added: "Obviously they weren't in the episodes, but it was kind of fun to do that and see people leaning out of their balconies recording it. Because I was like, 'They're never going to see this.' It was cool. I felt like a CIA agent or something."

Gavin also pointed out that a lot of the scenes that went viral on social media had already been aired in episode 10. In most of the fake scenes with Belly and Jeremiah, Belly is still wearing the outfit she wore when she arrives in Paris.

"If you really pay attention, a lot of the scenes that we filmed were actually scenes that were already in episode 10, like with the suitcase and the running and different things like that," he said. "If you were really nitpicking the situation, you probably would've seen that it was for episode 10 and not [the finale], but it was fun to play."

Jenny went on to share how grateful she was to Gavin for being down to trick the fans: "It was very fortunate that Gavin was able to come out and do that for us. But it was just for that purpose."

Read more about The Summer I Turned Pretty here:

• When does The Summer I Turned Pretty movie come out? Jenny Han gives release date update
• The Summer I Turned Pretty author defends changed ending following backlash
• All the changes The Summer I Turned Pretty ending makes from the books
• Read Belly's full letter from Susannah in The Summer I Turned Pretty here
• The Summer I Turned Pretty completely changes Conrad's letters to Belly from the books

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