Jonathan Bailey has been acting since his childhood. After getting his start in the theater and appearing in many beloved productions for shows like Company, The Last Five Years, and Othello, he had his breakout worldwide role when he appeared as Anthony Bridgerton in the hit Netflix show Bridgerton. He’s also in the Wicked movies, and he’s been starring in the hit Showtime series Fellow Travelers. However, he’s now taking a hiatus from the spotlight to focus on charitable work.
Throughout his career, Jonathan has been open about his sexuality. As a gay man, he’s committed to LGBTQ+ visibility. While he mostly keeps his relationships out of the spotlight, he confirmed that he’s been in a relationship with a “lovely man” during a December 2023 interview with Evening Standard. Learn more about Jonathan’s love life and what he’s said about his private relationship.
Jonathan has been out to his family and friends since his early 20s, according to a 2022 GQ profile. He did admit that early on in his career, he tried to hide his sexuality. “There’s two things we don’t want to know: if you’re an alcoholic or if you’re gay,” he recalled a friend telling him. “So, yeah, of course I thought that. Of course I thought that in order to be happy I needed to be straight.”
He admitted that later he realized that he’d be more comfortable being out with his sexuality rather than working about his work. “I reached a point where I thought, Fuck this, I’d much prefer to hold my boyfriend’s hand in public or be able to put my own face picture on Tinder and not be so concerned about that than getting a part,” he told GQ.
He also recalled the pressure from the entertainment business in a 2020 conversation with Sir Ian McKellen for Attitude. “This was at a stage where perhaps I was coming to terms with my own sexuality, I hadn’t necessarily hidden it… But I’ve never been not honest about it,” he said. “here’s a sense of shame, I think, that’s palpable throughout gay men within the industry. But then there’s also this heteronormative, heterosexual understanding of sexuality.”
In the above-mentioned interview with Attitude, Jonathan revealed that he hoped for more visibility from the gay community, while also maintaining a sense of privacy. “I’ll talk about my versatility on stage. For me, it’s about visibility. That’s it,” he said. “Playing straight characters, wanting to be visible, but also knowing that there are lots of things about my life that are personal, and I don’t want to cross that line. But visibility is key.”
