Heated Rivalry may have unfortunately departed screens (for now), but our collective interest in lead stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie has not died down.
Given how invested we were in the love story of Shane Hollander (Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), it’s only natural that fans have consistently wondered about the off-screen love lives of those who play them.
We got an update about Williams’ IRL romance just this week, providing even more fodder for the at-times overexcited fanbase.
So strap in and pick up that hockey puck I know for a fact you have lying around somewhere, because we’re digging into who the stars of Heated Rivalry are dating.
Is Hudson Williams single?
Hudson kept his relationship status, and indeed his sexuality, out of the public eye after Heated Rivalry‘s premiere, but we did get a few tell-tale signs that he’s in a relationship in recent weeks, including at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty on March 16.
In what was their red carpet debut, Williams stepped out with girlfriend Katelyn Larson at the star-studded event. The couple were all smiles as they coordinated in all-black looks and posed arm-in-arm on the carpet, adding to speculation about the pairing that kicked off on social media last month.
On Valentine’s Day, Williams celebrated the relationship with an Instagram Story of loved-up shots, with a caption confirming he’d been with Larson since before he landed any solid acting jobs, per Harpers Bazaar.
The post has sadly expired, but traces of their romance still remain on Williams’ Instagram page.
Larson is a tattoo artist who specialises in fine line drawings, per her Instagram Page, and Williams reckons fans have been supportive of him being more open about his private live in recent weeks.
“I think everyone just sees her, takes her in stride, and all the lovely fans supporting her even though she’s not even trying to be out there or be really perceived,” he told Etalk Canada at the Vanity Fair oscars afterparty. “She’s like, ‘I don’t want to be perceived’, but they’re still just being really warm, from what I’ve been told, and that’s really nice.”
Though he’s slowly letting us in on some deets of his personal life, Hudson was strong about the boundaries he has with fans and the media at the height of the Heated Rivalry fanfare last year.
“I think there’s never a question for me, when I would dream of becoming in the public eye, that I would want just a level of privacy,” Hudson told Deadline. In the same interview, the actor emphasised the importance of “queer people telling queer stories”.
The topic of Hudson’s love life reared its head when a cohost on gossip blogger Deuxmoi’s Deux U podcast alleged that he had a “secret girlfriend” — an accusation that the actor did not take kindly to.
“You know what,” Hudson reportedly wrote under an Instagram clip of the podcast moment that has since been deleted, “I’ve grown quite unfond of you Deuxmoi.”
So Williams is taken, but how is Storrie faring in the love department?
Is Connor Storrie single?
Much like Williams, Storrie has played coy about his relationship status and his sexuality, but that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill from doing its thing.
“I feel honoured to be able to bring someone to life that so many people feel seen, understood, and represented by,” Storrie said in an interview with Vulture last year. “I think that transcends whoever I’m sleeping with in my real life.”
Most recently, Storrie sparked dating rumours with Troye Sivan after the pair were spotted leaving the Oscars together. But before you start shipping them, the joint sighting does not equal a relationship, no matter how impossibly attractive the pairing would be.
Before the Sivan rumours, Storrie was widely speculated to be romantically involved with actor François Arnaud, who played Scott Hunter in Heated Rivalry.
Since some parts of the fandom know no chill, the rumours prompted some strong reactions, which Arnaud called out last year.
“[Most fans have been] incredibly positive and respectful,” Arnaud said. “For the ones that aren’t, I think it’s a lot of younger fans who don’t really understand the difference between reality and fiction.”
Neither party has confirmed the rumours, so let’s just all take a chill pill in the meantime, yeah?
The rumours about the sexualities of the Heated Rivalry cast almost engulfed the show
The lead stars remaining tight-lipped about their love lives has done little to quiet all the speculation. One such speculator was Jordan Firstman, the star of the fellow HBO series I Love LA.
Last year, Firstman caught flak for his critiques about Heated Rivalry in an interview with Vulture, including his comments that the show is about “two straight hockey players pretending to be gay and fucking”.
When the interviewer clarified that neither star has confirmed their sexuality, Firstman declared that “they should”.
“I am one of those bitches who says, ‘Then say it’. A gay guy would say it. I don’t respect you because you care too much about your career and what’s going to happen if people think you’re gay,” Firstman said.
It all culminated in Arnaud slamming Firstman’s comments, before HBO did what seemed like damage control by having him and Williams do a promotional event in LA earlier this month.
One person who’s not here for such chatter is Heated Rivalry’s director Jacob Tierney, who attempted to put the kibosh on speculation about his castmates’ sexualities. “I don’t think there’s any reason to get into that stuff,” he told Xtra Magazine.
“You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law. So what you have to gauge is somebody’s enthusiasm and willingness to do the work… and they fucking hit it out of the park,” he added.
They are wise words in an era of Hollywood where parasocial fandoms can verge on the obsessive, so here’s hoping we can all just appreciate what Williams and Storrie gave us on screen, and save all the speculation for our fanfics.
Lead image: Getty Images and Instagram
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