So What Exactly Is the Deal With Benedict’s Sexuality on ‘Bridgerton’?

The Netflix adaptation of Bridgerton—soon to be counting three seasons—has made quite a bit of changes from Julia Quinn’s original period romance novels, as pretty much all adaptations are bound to do when bringing a story from one medium to another.

Story beats have been shuffled around, new characters have been added, and the order in which each Bridgerton sibling finds their happily ever after has been altered.

By now it’s well known that Colin and Penelope’s story, the subject of season 3, actually happens a lot later in the Bridgerton novels—and that after Daphne and Anthony, Benedict is the one who takes center stage to pursue his own love story in An Offer from a Gentleman. To quickly sum it up without giving too much of the plot away, he has a Cinderella-type romance with a mysterious woman named Sophie, whom he meets during a masquerade ball and whose identity remains hidden for quite some time.

The show, however, takes a bit of a different approach when it comes to the second eldest of the Bridgerton clan. Benedict begins season 1 feeling aimless and out of place among his family, and he seems to find a purpose when Sir Henry Granville introduces him to his circle of artists. There are clearly some romantic and sexual undertones between the two, but those quickly disappear come season 2, when Benedict starts an affair with Tessa, a model whom he met during his art classes.

In a 2022 interview with TVLine, Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen declared that Benedict’s storyline with Henry in season 1 was “about tolerance in a really intolerant time, and showing Benedict in that world.” So it wasn’t something that was meant to be taken as an ironclad confirmation of the character being gay or bisexual. 

Then again, the rumor machine has never really stopped spinning around Benedict. After all, one of the only things missing from Bridgerton is some major queer representation, since the show has otherwise made inclusion one of its most recognizable traits. Sure, we had Reynolds and Brimsely in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, but they were supporting characters rather than main ones who could potentially lead a season.

In fact, in a May 2024 interview with Refinery29, the Bridgerton‘s other showrunner, Jess Brownell, seemed to hint at a possible queer love story being one of the focal points of the show in future seasons. “I think this is a show about the many ways in which people love,” said Brownell. “So it only feels right to show all the ways in which people love, including queer love.”

Of course, Brownell carefully avoided even hinting at who the protagonist of said queer love story might be, but the important thing here is that the idea of a major queer romance seems to be very much on the showrunners’ vision board. And Benedict remains one of the most likely candidates—as does Eloise, since there have been several parallels drawn between the two as outsiders in their families and somewhat different from the rest of their siblings. 

Sure, both of them have canon stories that have become very well-beloved by fans everywhere and whose foundations have already been more or less laid—e.g., characters that have already been introduced in the show, or the various rumors swirling around the internet about Sophie having possibly already been cast. In the end, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out, and the final episodes of season 3 will probably give us several clues in that regard.