One of the most important characters in After Everything is Mimi Keene’s Natalie, someone who has a complicated backstory with Hardin.
Throughout After Everything, the last movie in the After series, Mimi Keene’s Natalie Kingsley plays an important role in Hardin’s character arc due to their messy backstory. Wrapping up Hardin and Tessa’s storyline, After Everything follows Hardin as he attempts to reconcile with his past mistakes and toxic behaviors. One big part of his journey is making amends with a woman named Natalie who he was friends with as a child. In order to do this, he flies to Lisbon, Portugal, where she lives.
Natalie becomes a central figure in After Everything’s ending, pushing Hardin to reflect on his actions. She supports him as he learns but also refuses to obfuscate her thoughts and emotions. By kindly calling him out when he says or does something stupid, she helps hold him accountable. However, their dynamic wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Natalie and Hardin’s complicated and messy history.
In After Everything, Natalie is Hardin’s ex-girlfriend who moved from England to Lisbon, Portugal. The two knew each other when they were teenagers but haven’t spoken in years. Hardin decides to visit her after his mom brings up that he saw her in Lisbon. After reuniting and working through their past, Natalie becomes a friend and confidant to Hardin.
During his Lisbon stay, Hardin and Natalie share emotional vulnerability, opening up to one another about their emotions and dreams. While she isn’t cruel, she doesn’t mince words about his mistakes, calling him out when necessary. Natalie’s friendship helps Hardin realize that he needs to grow and reflect on his actions. Ultimately, Hardin wouldn’t have gotten to a point where he would be somewhat worthy of Tessa’s love without Natalie’s help. He recognizes that she helped him become a better person. As a thank you, his parting gift to Natalie in After Everything is the house she dreamed of living in on the cliffside of Lisbon.
Hardin seeks out Natalie in order to apologize to him for his past actions that occurred before the After movies. Through flashbacks, After Everything shows that Hardin was gambling with his friends and lost his watch. To win it back, he made a bet with his friend James that he could sleep with Natalie – his friend to whom all the guys were attracted. This is particularly concerning because this is extremely similar to how Hardin and Tessa started out during After. By mirroring one another, these events show Hardin’s toxic pattern of using women for his own purposes.
His friends agreed to the bet but demanded that Hardin show them proof that it occurred. As such, Hardin seduced Natalie and convinced her to create a sex tape. She only consented on the condition that it was only for him. Hardin violated their agreement by sending the sex tape to his buddy for the bet. His friend sent the video around and posted it online, making the video viral by the next day. Not only were Hardin and James’ actions completely immoral and a violation of consent, but it was also a crime if Natalie was under the age of 18 at the time.
The sex tape leaking had catastrophic consequences for Natalie in After Everything. Firstly, she lost her scholarship to university, causing her to drop out because of lack of funds. While it isn’t directly stated, she alludes to the fact that her family didn’t want to support her after the sex tape. As such, she decided to move to Lisbon since it was sunny, affordable, and nobody knew her there. After all the negative consequences she suffered because of Hardin, it shows real maturity and character that she forgives him without becoming passive-aggressive or mean.
Not much is known about what happens to Natalie after parting ways with Hardin in After Everything. However, it’s possible to extrapolate from what happens in the book Before – the only After book in which Natalie appears. Hardin doesn’t visit Natalie in the book, but it does show a glimpse of her future. She goes on to marry a man named Elijah, and they have a baby together. Faith and spirituality become an important part of her life. After 6 isn’t happening, but it’s highly likely Natalie would experience these same things if the movie series continued after After Everything.
