Who Else Expected Benedict Bridgerton To Be Gay?

Netflix premiered what has quickly become a smash-hit TV series, Bridgerton, which is a steamy period romance set in Regency-era England and based on Julia Quinn’s eponymous novel series. The show, a delightful escapist indulgence, revolves around the titular Bridgerton family, a prolific aristocratic clan with eight alphabetically named siblings. This season focuses on the oldest daughter and fourth child, Daphne and her quest for a husband, which ends up becoming a passionate, whirlwind romance with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings. And among those supporting this storyline is one character, Daphne’s older brother named Benedict Bridgerton.

The Bridgerton boys (l-r): Benedict, Gregory and Colin

Benedict Bridgerton is the second oldest Bridgerton sibling (after Anthony and before Colin) and Anthony’s heir presumptive to the Viscountcy of Bridgerton. He is portrayed as a sweet, sensitive, and charming young man who is close to his siblings in general but opens up mostly to Eloise, the second oldest girl after Daphne. Benedict, being a second son, isn’t expected to shoulder any major responsibilities and should instead live a life of leisure. But he yearns for something more than this life of idle frivolity. He likes to paint and has a deep interest in the arts. He draws recreationally and takes pleasure in critiquing the works of other artists. In one memorable foot-in-the-mouth scene, Benedict is telling Lady Danbury at an art gallery how one of the paintings does not convey enough depth, with the painter, Sir Henry Granville, standing right there next to him.

This is how he meets Henry Granville, who becomes his friend and eventually invites Benedict to his home where he hosts a more intimate art club. Benedict goes to Henry’s and starts drawing nude portraits from life, which Henry thinks are really good.

Even before it is later revealed in the show that Henry Granville is gay, the connection between him and Benedict as they bond over their disparagement of art felt like a lead-up to something more intimate between the two men. When Henry extends the invitation, I thought: Surely, this is only going to end up in a smooch, a kiss between them. I mean, both of them are quickly revealed to be second-born sons, for chrissakes!

Sir Henry Granville chuckling at Benedict Bridgerton’s witty disparagement of art

That, of course, doesn’t happen. But that is only the first visit.

Benedict comes back to see Granville, this time, at his more adventurous soiree, which is basically an artsy orgy. It is there that Benedict meets Madame Genevieve Delacroix, a modiste who fakes a French accent for clients, and they end up having a threesome with another woman.

It is also there that Benedict, in searching for more privacy from the orgiastic crowd, opens a door to a room where he sees Henry making love to a man. He lingers at the door only long enough to exchange a look with Henry – a moment which I breathlessly anticipated he’d enter the room, walk over to the bed and join the two men.

Henry in the arms of his male lover

But again, I was disappointed. He instead shuts the door and returns to Genevieve and the second woman, who, it turns out, is Henry Granville’s wife.

The next time Benedict meets Henry at a London soiree, and is properly introduced to his wife, Lucy, he gets so embarrassed and quickly hustles himself out of the situation. Poor man! Not only does he now know that his new friend is a homosexual, but he had slept with his wife too?!

Finally, when he attends yet another party – this time with not only Henry and Lucy in attendance, but Henry’s lover, Lord Wetherby – he decides to talk to Henry, wanting to “understand your…situation. I would just like to understand.” He seems genuinely curious and maybe a little judgmental.

“You’re married,” he says in incredulity when Granville admits that he is in love with Lord Wetherby, to which Henry replies, “And our marriage affords my wife her freedoms and protections. It is a happier union than most of the people in this room have, I assure you.”

But Benedict isn’t finished. He presses on, “And what is the advantage for the young ladies Lord Wetherby is courting? Do they also share this understanding? What about honor? Romance?”

It was at this point that my last hopes of this man possibly being gay were crushed. He is not. He couldn’t be.

But before I could wallow in my grief, I watched Henry deliver a rebuttal that was simply riveting. Reacting to the censure in Benedict’s words, he says, “We live under constant threat of danger. I risk my life every day for love. You have no idea what it is like to be in a room with someone you cannot live without, and yet still feel as though you are oceans apart. Stealing your glances, disguising your touches. We cannot so much as smile at each other without first ensuring no one else is watching.”

There is something so saddening about noting that the realities of gay people in Regency-era England are the reality of gay people in modern Nigeria.

Anyway, back to Benedict, nothing else happens in this season to suggest that he could be gay. In fact, he continues his relationship with Genevieve and even tells Eloise and Anthony about her. So it can be assumed, for now, that Benedict is not gay. As each of the show’s seasons is going to be based upon one Bridgerton sibling’s love story (as in the books), we can assume that Season 2 will focus on Anthony’s quest for true love and Benedict will get his turn in Season 3 (if the series continues for that long). Benedict Bridgerton is the protagonist in Julia Quinn’s third Bridgerton novel, An Offer From a Gentleman. The synopsis suggests that a Cinderella-like fairytale romance is in store for the second Bridgerton boy if the show’s creators decide to follow the source material.

Or maybe they don’t follow the source material and throw in a latent discovery of his homosexuality and a gay lover. I mean, Lady Whistledown would get a kick out of exposing that scandal.

Written by Pink Panther