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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lisa McLoughlin

Bridgerton stars spark dating speculation as Netflix show celebrates major milestone

Bridgerton stars Bessie Carter and Sam Phillips have sparked dating speculation after meeting on the set of season three of the show.

Thirty-year-old Carter portrays Prudence Featherington on the popular Netflix series, while Phillips plays Lord Debling, the new suitor of Nicola Coughlan's character, Penelope Featherington.

The pair raised speculation about their relationship status after they were photographed at a number of events alongside Carter’s parents, actress Imelda Staunton and Downtown Abbey actor Jim Carter, over the past year.

The co-stars were first photographed together last May at the Theatrical Consequences: The 5th Annual Platform Presents West End Gala after-party at London’s Tequila Mockingbird.

Later in November, they attended the Wonka premiere with her mother, 68, and happily posed for photos together.

Phillips (L) pictured with Bessie Carter (R) and her father Jim Carter (centre) (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Then in December 2023, Phillips was supported at The Crown season six finale celebration event by the young actress and her father, 75.

The 39-year-old portrayed the Queen's Equerry, Stephen Chambers, in the third and fourth seasons of the Netflix period drama.

Fans began to speculate their dating status after a TikTok creator shared a video titled, “Bridgerton co-stars rumored to be dating in real life.”

Commenting on the rumours, one said: “Okayyyy featherington sisters bagging the hot ones!”

“They're so cute!!” another penned under the post while a third shared: “I love this so much!”

The Standard has contacted Bessie Carter and Sam Phillips for reps for comment.

Bridgerton stars Harriet Cains and Luke Thompson in January (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

However, Carter isn’t the only Featherington sister believed to have found love on-set with Harriet Cains, who plays Phillipa, reportedly dating Benedict Bridgerton actor Luke Thompson.

In January, the pair attended the Vanity Fair’s Rising Stars party where Thompson, 35, was photographed affectionately planting a kiss on Cains’ head.

Although they haven’t directly addressed the rumors, Cains posted a picture of Thompson surrounded by love heart emojis on Instagram in January 2021 with the caption: “My favorite Luke soz @lukenewtonuk.”

Amid the fan excitement about another possible Bridgerton couple, it was revealed that the beloved regency-era series amassed an astonishing 45.1 million views globally during its opening weekend on Netflix.

Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 garnered 165.20 million viewing hours within its initial four days, translating to 45.10 million views.

In comparison, the second season, released in 2022, accumulated 193 million minutes watched across its eight episodes.

When divided by the season's 8.5-hour runtime, this equates to approximately 22.7 million views, just over half of season three’s debut.

While specific data for season one’s debut weekend is unavailable, it is known that it was surpassed by season two's viewership.

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