Noah Thompson sees the social media chatter about his personal life and ignores it, mostly. There's one rumor about the American Idol winner's love life that bothers him.

The story goes that Thompson and his longtime girlfriend Angel (with whom he has a baby boy) have broken up, and the reason is American Idol runner-up HunterGirl. It's not true — in fact, the truth couldn't be further from that rumor. This story comes with a twist.

"The only thing that bothers me is people talking about, like, Hunter," Thompson tells Taste of Country Nights' Evan Paul, referring to Hunter Wolkonowski, the 24-year-old woman he competed against until the very end of Season 20 in May. They did become very good friends on the show.

"We had our trailers side-by-side," the "Stay" singer shares. "That's not something we picked. We became close, man. We talked about how one person was feeling this way ... she was just kind of there for me and I was there for her. We just became best friends, man."

The story may sound familiar to longtime viewers of American Idol. In 2011, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina had to sidestep dating rumors as they grew close and ended up ranking first and second on Season 10 of American Idol. The two teens never actually dated, and eventually the majority came to believe it. This was before social media, however, and in 2022, moments like this light a fuse on rumors.

What you see there is two friends goofing around. "I love Hunter to death. But we are not together, but no means," he says.

Thompson goes on to talk about his experience on American Idol and why he felt out of place. In fact, he even feels a bit guilty about winning, since so many of the other finalists had more experience than he does.

"They have been playing shows their whole life and doing the things, and I haven't," the Kentucky native says.

Still, the voters chose Thompson to win. He gives as much credit as he can to his supporters, which included HunterGirl and Angel.

"They're good friends," he says of the two. "Angel, once Angel flew down here, Hunter and Angel talked. They're good friends. People just need to quit. Nobody has done a single thing."

Find "Stay" wherever you stream country music.

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