Jessica Madsen’s Coming Out Post Has Bridgerton Fans Cheering
This could lead to the best change from the books yet.
Penelope Featherington may be the talk of the ton this season of Bridgerton, but another star stole the spotlight to make a very fitting announcement on the first day of Pride Month. Jessica Madsen, who plays the thorny socialite Cressida Cowper, revealed she’s in love with a woman in a rainbow-filled Instagram post on June 1. Amid a groundswell of support from her Bridgerton co-stars, fans also speculated that the revelation could be a hint about how Cressida’s story may change from the books.
Madsen opened up about her love life in a carousel of Pride Month photos, which ended with a clip of herself rocking some rainbow-colored rhinestones on her face. “In love with a woman, loud about it and proud about it!” Madsen wrote. Her Bridgerton fam showed Madsen a lot of love in the comments: Nicola Coughlan, Jonathan Bailey, and Bridgerton author Julia Quinn each shared a string of heart emojis.
Hannah Dodd commented, “Love youuuuuu,” and Madsen’s on-screen mother Joanna Bobin shared some very un-Lady Cowper-like support — “Go baby girl! Love you,” Bobin wrote. But along with the well wishes, there were also a lot of fans theorizing even more about Cressida’s unexpected friendship with Eloise.
In the first two seasons of Bridgerton, Cressida was basically a stereotypical mean girl, callously picking on Penelope and Eloise for not fitting into high society like she does. But Season 3 showed a surprising new side to the socialite, as she developed a close bond with Eloise and opened up about her parents’ restrictive expectations for her.
The sudden closeness between Cressida and Eloise sparked a popular new ship among Bridgerton fans: Creloise. Fans have suspected for a while that the show’s version of Eloise may be queer (although the character isn’t in the books), and the new showrunner Jess Brownell recently added some fuel to that rumor by promising the series would be “exploring queer love stories across the next couple seasons.”
Of course, Madsen’s coming out post definitely does not mean that her character is queer, but fans are holding out hope for Creloise to become canon more than ever now.
