Caleb Lee Hutchinson Says Maddie Poppe ‘Scared’ Him ‘To Death’ When They First Met

Courtesy of ABC

Today they’re a cute couple, but Caleb Lee Hutchinson has admitted he was intimidated by ‘American Idol’ winner Maddie Poppe when she first started talking him on the show. We got the scoop on what happened!

Maddie Poppe, 20, and her boyfriend Caleb Lee Hutchinson, 19, seem so comfortable together it’s hard to imagine that he ever felt awkward around her. But the singer admits that he was “scared to death” when the American Idol winner first approached him when they were both on the show. The lovebirds recalled that adorable moment when they sat down to speak to us for our HollywoodLife Podcast. Maddie set the scene perfectly saying that she saw Caleb before he saw her, because she was sitting in the audience at the Dolby Theatre during the first round of Hollywood Week, which aired on TV in March. She said, “I didn’t have to sing until the next day, so I was watching everybody from the first day go up there, and there were some really good people. But then I saw Caleb go up there and, as soon as he started singing, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me?’ I got teary eyed, and I got chills and goosebumps, and that never happens for me.”

Maddie said she later went up to Caleb and told him how good she thought he was. She added that “he was so shy at first.” Her now boyfriend completely agreed, saying, “She scared me to death.” Caleb told HollywoodLife, “She freaked me out. It was weird. It wasn’t like I came to American Idol trying to find a girlfriend or anything. I was sitting, or standing, or talking to a bunch of people, and she just randomly walked up and started talking to me. I was like, ‘What is this? What’s she trying to sell me?’”

As fans of the show know, Maddie and Caleb initially started off as friends, but they eventually fell for each other hard. The Dallas, Georgia native, said, “I ain’t the mushy gushy type but she captivated me. I thought she was really great. It really felt like middle school there for a minute, where it was just like…our friends would be like, ‘Maddie thinks you’re cute.’” Eventually they confessed their feelings for each other after a couple of months of being best friends. The rest, as it’s said, is history. Check out the full story of how Caleb and Maddie’s friendship turned to romance on our HollywoodLife podcast chat with the couple, which is available on iTunes.