Kaley Cuoco says she was convinced ‘The Big Bang Theory’ creator wrote in more sex scenes after she and costar Johnny Galecki broke up to mess with them

• “The Big Bang Theory” costars Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki secretly dated on the show for about two years until late 2009 as their characters, Penny and Leonard, were dating.
• On Dax Shephard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert,” Cuoco said after their break up, creator Chuck Lorre wrote a number of episodes where their characters were “sleeping together every other second.”
• Penny and Leonard started a relationship on the show’s third season in September 2009 before breaking up on the series for the first time in April 2010. The characters hooked up an additional time in May 2010.
• “Johnny and I would talk and I’m like, ‘I think he did that on purpose,” Cuoco added.
• Cuoco has been happily married to her husband Karl Cook since June 2018. 
• The actress will star on HBO Max’s original series, “The Flight Attendant,” which premieres on the service on Thursday, November 26. 
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

“The Big Bang Theory” stars Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki dated early on in the show before their characters ever got together and finally wed on the show’s season 10 premiere.

When the two broke up during season three in late 2009, Cuoco said she believes creator and executive producer Chuck Lorre purposefully wrote a bunch of steamy scenes between the two on the show. 

“We got together and just fell mad for each other for about two years. But then we broke up,” Cuoco told Dax Shephard on Monday’s episode of his podcast, “Armchair Expert,” of having a giant crush on Galecki when they filmed the pilot and he had a girlfriend at the time.

“Luckily, Johnny and I came out of it so brilliantly,” Cuoco continued. “We’re closer today than we ever were, but I just remembered Chuck Lorre, the genius behind our show. He is the best. He’s loyal as ever, too. He’s really special. But I remember when we broke up, obviously, it was a little sensitive for a minute. But I remember those weeks that Chuck had written these episodes where all of a sudden our characters were like sleeping together every other second.”

“Johnny and I would talk and I’m like, ‘I think he did that on purpose.’ I still believe he might have because he’s so —” Cuoco said before getting cut off.

When Shepard interjected to ask if she thought Lorre did that in order to possibly get them back together or to mess with them, Cuoco responded, "No, just to f--- with us. It's the latter, which makes me love him even more. In fact, if I was with him, I'd probably ask him because that came out of nowhere."

Cuoco previously told CBS Watch Magazine she and Galecki dated for almost two years in secret, breaking up before the 2009 holidays as season three of "TBBT" aired on CBS.

If you revisit the show, which is streaming in its entirety on HBO Max, the season picks up when Leonard (Galecki) returns home from a three-month trip and Penny (Cuoco) is harboring some feelings for her neighbor.

The two started taking their friendship to the next level on the season premiere in September 2009 when Penny and Leonard make out. The two carried on a relationship, which sometimes alluded to the two having sex several times throughout the season (but never showed the two doing much more than making out), until they called it quits for the first time in an April 2010 episode.

By the end of the season, in a May 2010 episode, their characters Penny winds up sleeping with Leonard again after breaking up with a boyfriend.

"All of a sudden, these characters were all up in each [other]," Cuoco said. "But Johnny and I came out of it better than before."

Cuoco said the two celebrated their contract negotiations on the show together. From seasons 8-10, the two stars, along with Jim Parsons, were making a reported $1 million per episode. By season 10, Cuoco, Galecki, Parsons, and their costars Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar were bringing in $1 million per episode. 

The five stars took paycuts to $900,000 per episode for the final two seasons so their female costars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch could make about $500,000 per episode by the series' end.

"We would cry and we would have these long, late-night conversations where we would just be bawling because I knew and he knew, in that moment, [that] this would never happen again and, it won't," Cuoco recalled of celebrating contract negotiations over the years with Galecki. 

Cuoco has been married to equestrian Karl Cook since 2018 while Galecki has a son with girlfriend Alaina Meyer. The two have been dating since 2018.

Cuoco will next star on HBO Max's original series, "The Flight Attendant," which is set to debut on November 26. She also voices Harley Quinn on the streaming service's animated series of the same name.

You can listen to Cuoco discuss "The Big Bang Theory" 49 minutes into "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard" here.