Who Is Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan Dating?

IDK about you, but I firmly believe that Nicola Coughlan is Netflix’s true diamond. Although she may play the gossiping entrepreneur Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton, she is not quite as revealing in real life. In other words, she keeps her romantic life extremely private. So who is Coughlan dating? Let’s channel Whistledown herself and investigate.

As of right now, it seems that Coughlan is single — at least, that’s what it looks like. Unlike her Bridgerton character, I don’t have eyes and ears everywhere, so there could always be a secret romance brewing. Still, being single at the moment would make sense. Coughlan has been seriously busy recently. With starring roles on Bridgerton and Derry Girls, she doesn’t have a lot of free time to date. Not to mention, she’s actually the leading lady of Bridgerton’s third season — on May 15, she confirmed that her character Penelope Featherington’s budding romance with Colin Bridgerton will be the focus of the upcoming season, which will likely be released in 2023.

Though Coughlan will be playing out a relatively unhealthy love story on Netflix, she has high standards for her own romantic life. (As she should.) During a March interview with Shondaland, Coughlan didn’t shy away from sharing how she feels about Penelope and Colin’s romantic story so far. “If you’re going to ever have a relationship with someone, you can’t be like, “Well, he’s a god, and I’m trash,” she said. In her opinion, they need to find a better emotional balance before you can really root for them in Season 3. It’s a healthy outlook to have — and it bodes well for Coughlan’s future dating life (even if she keeps it private from her fans).

Peeking at Coughlan’s Instagram profile (where else?), it’s clear that a lot of her feed is reserved for her professional life. The majority of her posts are from the sets of Bridgerton and Derry Girls, and there are no ex-partners or soft launches to be found. However, she does have one reported ex whom she might have met at work.

According to the Mirror, Coughlan reportedly dated fellow actor Laurie Kynaston (who actually appeared on a Season 2 Episode 1 of Derry Girls). The duo reportedly split up to focus on their careers, per Irish outlet RSVP. There’s no word on when this maybe-relationship happened, but Season 2 started filming in Oct. 2019. Maybe they started dating in time for Halloween? Here’s a cute snap of them directly from a moment in Derry Girls.

Suffice to say, there’s not a ton of information about Coughlan’s romantic life out there. Good thing fans have the prospect of Polin’s Bridgerton love story to keep them occupied. And hey, she’s reportedly dated a costar before! There’s no harm in shipping her with some other Bridgerton actors (even if Luke Newton, aka Colin, is currently taken). I personally wouldn’t mind seeing her and Luke Thompson (Benedict Bridgerton) hit it off...