There’s a new Lady Whistledown in town, and Nicola Coughlan won’t tell you who it is. That’s because she has a genius plan for avoiding Bridgerton spoilers now that she’s taking a step back from the show.
While it’s a bummer that Coughlan won’t be as involved with Bridgerton anymore, it should have been expected. Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page left the show entirely, while Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley have had significantly smaller roles since Season 2. So this isn’t all that surprising, especially when you consider the fact that Penelope is not Lady Whistledown anymore. On that note, Coughlan is going above and beyond to not spoil who the new gossip columnist is for fans or herself, as she told E! News:
I told everyone and said I was her, so they know not to tell me. But I genuinely have no clue and it's quite nice not to know. I don't need to know.
No one telling her and remaining clueless is by far the best way to avoid spoilers, and I honestly love that Coughlan and the crew are doing this.
While she goes on to be part of a different mystery in one of Hulu’s best shows, Only Murders in the Building, she’s staying in the dark about the newest gossip from the ton. However, she’s not totally staying away from Bridgerton, as she explained:
I feel very lucky. It's the best of both worlds, because I'm currently filming on Only Murders, but I still get to pop back to Bridgerton now and then and see everybody, and it's just like coming home. You're like, 'Oh, hey guys, how you doing?'
So, again, while Nicola Coughlan will be guessing about who the new Lady Whistledown is alongside you and me, she will appear in Season 5, which will focus on Francesca and Michaela. At the end of Season 4, alongside the reveal that Penelope was no longer the gossiper, we got to see Francesca grieve John and enter a new chapter of her life. Now, when we return, we’ll get to watch her fall in love with Michaela, as Bridgerton embarks on its first season centered around queer characters.
The Penelope actress is thrilled about all this too, even if it is a hard change to comprehend, as she explained:
It’s bittersweet. I feel like, God, I had such an epic run. I think that's part of the beauty of that world is it keeps reinventing itself. Every season being a new story—it takes on a different guise.
That’s all very exciting to me, and I can’t wait to see Season 5 and hear the cast talk about it. Meanwhile, I kind of hope someone asks Nicola Coughlan to guess who took over as Lady Whistledown. If she truly does not know, I want to hear her theories, because I’m sure they’re fantastic!
However, ultimately, we’ll just have to wait to see what happens, and so will Nicola Coughlan. So, while we wait for Bridgerton to return, you can go back and stream the first four seasons with a Netflix subscription.
