The Trust's Julie says she and Jake are not together: 'Our beliefs are so different'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of The Trust. 

The Trust: A Game of Greed contestant Julie Theis wants to set the record straight.

Despite her ongoing showmance with costar Jake Chocholous, she says that it did not turn into anything after the cameras stopped rolling. "No, we're not together," she tells EW. "We definitely would talk quite a bit, right away, outside of the house, and there were definitely elements to our relationship that [were] more on that romantic field. But beyond the show, there is no substance for Jake and I to have a real relationship because our beliefs are so different from each other."

Jake previously told EW that he and Julie had romantic weekends together after filming ended, but it didn't continue past that. And Julie points to his posts on social media and his political views as to why it could never work between them. "They're just so opposite from what I believe, and that's important for people to know," she says. But she also confirms that her feelings for Jake were real during filming. "I mean, you spend so much time together in the house, and part of the laws behind attraction is proximity. Outside of the house, the relationship can't work, but it was very different inside of the house. Jake and I fought plenty on the show and that was very real — he said plenty of things that would always piss me off — but I always did feel like he's not ever going to vote for me and he also trusts in the things that I'm saying, so that's something that brought us closer."

She also claims that their showmance was "very different from how it's portrayed" in the episodes. "He was at an arms distance from me for a really long time," she adds. "Our relationship was very innocent. We don't even kiss until the very last episode — and we lived together for a whole month. Instantaneously, Jake and I had very real chemistry, so that wasn't something I had to fake. But chemistry doesn't equal compatibility, and Jake and I are very different on the beliefs that we hold."

While Julie and Jake are not in a relationship, where do they stand now? "We're just cast mates," Julie says. "It's very work-oriented, I feel." But reliving their showmance by watching the episodes all these months later has been "cool," she adds. "There's parts of it that's cringey, parts of it that's funny. There's parts of it that are cute. It's surreal."

And nothing has surprised her while watching the season. "Jake and I fought a lot after it too, because I was so pissed off about the lineup situation," Julie says with a laugh. "And we were also very much like, 'This is what I said in confessional about you. This is what could come out. This is what actually pisses me off about you.' So I feel like we already got it all out before the show came out."

The only aspect of the entire season she was eager to see onscreen was when Tolú Ekundare secretly took the final offer in the Vault, stealing $25,000 and making the final prize total $243,000, which was ultimately split five ways. "When we were on the cliff and they said how much money is in the trust, I knew it was Tolú," Julie says. "I was annoyed that Tolú had taken the money, but also I was like, 'Everyone's going to think it's me and people are going to be mad at me now.' Thankfully the votes had already gone out. I think it would've been a very different game if Brooke had said that before we casted a vote — that could have changed everything."

It was never revealed onscreen to the rest of the cast that it was Tolú who took the cash, and Julie says that Tolú kept up the lie for a while. "Tolú asked me if it was me," Julie says. "We were up in the bathroom and I was like, 'Maybe Jake took it, because he didn't really get an offer.' But Tolú didn't admit it until after filming and I was like, 'Did you really not take it?' And she finally admitted to it. But I had to ask everyone, 'Who took this money?'"

But Julie doesn't regret not putting in a bid for that final offer, because she's proud of the way her gameplay evolved over the course of the season. "In the beginning I was a lot more cutthroat — I saw very quickly how the game was going to go, and I was honestly correct," she says. "I knew that I should align with the people who are seen as leaders in the group. There was a benefit of me aligning with the women — we did have a genuine friendship, but that's smart gameplay. There was a benefit to me aligning with Jake and him having a crush on me. I made sure I stayed protected."

She "thrived" playing "mental chess" while a lot of the cast didn't seem to be playing at all. "But my gameplay actually got worse as the game went on, because I started to develop real connections with people like Brian and Gaspare," she says. "I got to the end and was like, 'I actually can't vote these people out,' even though when I first came in, I wanted as few people to make it to the end with me. You see me soften up as the season goes on, because they end up being people that I can trust and I know the stories about their kids and who they are, and I didn't want them to go home."

That's also why she never considered voting anyone out in the finale, even though she was worried Tolú might cast a vote against her. "You see us girls tear each other apart," Julie says. "There was a lot of mean things said, and the fight that was shown, it was way worse than what you saw. We said we're never going to vote for each other and I did mean it with her, but I had a fear she was going to vote me out, so do I place a vote so that I don't go home?"

She ultimately stayed true to her promise, and when Tolú revealed she also voted to share the money, Julie was shocked. "My stomach dropped," she says. "I was like, 'Holy s---, I did it.' I think it is a very beautiful moment because you see Tolú and I not having trust in other people, we say that trust has to be earned, not given. Then we had a whole blowout. But it also shows the depth of our friendship and having to go into that being like, 'Please just don't. Our guns can both be loaded, but don't fire.' And for me, that was a true act of trust. It was cool for me to see that too."

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