Men can have same-sex friends, and celebrities don’t owe you any clarification on their personal lives. Such is true for Heated Rivalry stars François Arnaud and Connor Storrie, who play Scott Hunter and Ilya Rozanov in the smash queer hockey romance.
The two have been seen hanging out quite often, from various parties and events to more private affairs. Now, I am no stranger to a little bit of wouldn’t it be funny if they were dating thought process. I grew up online, after all. Though Storrie has been close-lipped about his sexuality, Arnaud is openly bisexual, so it isn’t quite as far-fetched as, say, putting two straight married people in the same situation.
However, there is a line between online fandom discussion and harassment, and this has quickly boiled over into the latter. Speculation can go too far, and searching for what could be absolutely nothing in social media posts is not healthy.
For example, Arnaud posted a selfie with his dog on Instagram recently, captioning it “family of two.” The internet ran with it, and suddenly the news was that he was single. (He’d been openly dating fellow actor Marc Bendavid since 2022.)
Also, when asked in January by Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live if he was single, Arnaud said that it is “none of your f****** business.” So maybe respect that, online sleuths? “Cryptic messages” are not an open-door policy to harass a man about his personal life.
Human bonds are more complicated than black-and-white
If anything, it seems like Arnaud and Storrie simply hit it off while filming the show, and have formed a bond that is stronger than some of the others. Arnaud is, also, the most experienced of the cast, with projects like Yellowjackets and Schitt’s Creek under his belt. It would be just as likely that he is guiding Storrie through the machinations of fame and dealing with the public eye.
There is much more speculation online, but I will not link it here. This kind of scrutiny can often lead to celebrities feeling like they need to come out before they’re ready. At the end of the day, we don’t know their personal lives aside from what is presented to us in the public. That should be enough.
(Featured image by Olivia Wong/Getty Images)
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