As a romance show Bridgerton requires the viewers to 'ship' the couples, however, occasionally some will take this outside the show and fictional characters, projecting their desire to see the fictional couple's romance play out in real life for the actors. This can go too far, however, with the most extreme of these fans harassing, bullying and stalking the actor or their partners, something that we have seen play out within a subsection of the Bridgerton fandom.
Image Credit: Netflix
'Shipping' is the act of enjoying, creating, or supporting a particular romantic relationship. The term shipping in this context is derived from the word relationship. Within the world of Bridgerton the viewers and fans need to be invested in, and support the relationships onscreen in order for the success of the show to be sustained, however, as mentioned above, this has gone much further for a small subsection of the more extreme fans of Bridgerton, or at least one couple in Bridgerton. Instead of keeping their focus on the characters, and romance, of Penelope and Colin a small section of fans have projected their desires for Penelope and Colin onto the actors, resulting in some concerning online behaviour. It is important that we note this is not a consequence of the PR for season 3, but is something that has been prevalent for several years in the fandom, but has been exacerbated by the PR strategy for season 3.
The idea of wanting to see favourite actors date, and have a relationship in real life is not new, it has been around as long as the movies themselves, however, sometimes this goes beyond just thinking that the actors look great together or have amazing chemistry. The behaviour that has been invading a small subsection of the Bridgerton fandom is toxic and dangerous for the actors and for those people closest to them in their lives. The shipping of Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan is one such example of toxic behaviour by fans that ship the actors in real life with some fans chronically stalking Luke and his girlfriend online, as well as following and stalking his friends and family online and the friends and family of his partner online. These fans are so deep in their belief that Luke should be with Nicola some have moved their obsession from online spaces into real life spaces as well.
I first became aware of this behaviour during the filming of season 3 when I learned of a small group of fans who were involved in online harassment and bullying of Luke's girlfriend at the time. The bullying of her became so bad that the fans were harassing her at her work. Jade, his girlfriend at the time, is a singer and musical theatre actress, and during the winter of 2022/2023 she was in a Christmas musical show in London. During the promotion for the production each of the cast took turns to do a 'Social Media takeover' where they would take control of the official social media accounts for the show. Jade was one of the cast members to do a Social Media Takeover for the show, but during the time she was in control of the account some Bridgerton fans went onto the account and harassed and bullied her for no reason other than she was Luke Newton's partner. This incident led to her shutting down her social media for a time, and it was at this that Luke Newton left twitter.
Whilst this incident with Jade was awful for her, it was by no means the first, nor was it the last instance of Bridgerton fans harassing and bullying her. In fact Jade had been targeted by some extreme Polin fans prior to this incident. There are reports that a small group of the more extreme fans had a WhatsApp group to make fun of her and mock her medical condition (I won't disclose that as I don't know how open she is about it). In addition to this, there were those that would comment on her social media with trolling comments, and make TikToks to bully and mock her. Despite Luke and Jade having broken up she continues to be mocked and bullied online by a small subsection of Bridgerton fans. In one comment I saw the other day one fan suggested that Jade was overreacting to the bullying and harassment she had received and was doing it to try and 'play victim'. This behaviour is nasty and toxic, and this subsection of the Bridgerton fandom are repeating the toxic and bullying behaviour online.
Luke Newton has a new partner, and like Jade, she is targeted by those in the fandom who see her as an obstacle to Luke and Nicola being together. Whilst she has not yet been targeted in her professional capacity as Jade was, she is still bullied and harassed on her own social media accounts. But it is not just on her own accounts that she is targeted, some fans hold lives on X and TikTok that can last for hours where they discuss Luke's girlfriend and make up conspiracies about her, they also dissect every social media post she makes and blame her for any negative press about Luke or Nicola. The bullying, harassment and nastiness goes further as some on X use derogatory and misogynistic language when talking about her, such as 'slut' or 'cockroach'. There are fans that have openly stated they will hate on Luke's new girlfriend because she is with Luke and they believe he should be with Nicola, and then there are the ones that believe Luke and Nicola are in a secret relationship and Luke is cheating on Nicola with his girlfriend. Outside of this online toxic bullying, one fan boasted how she tracked down a hotel that Luke was staying in on holiday and called them up to demand information on whether his girlfriend was with him, another stalked him at another hotel he was at in LA and covertly took photos of him and his girlfriend.
This behaviour shows a disturbing lack of boundaries by fans, as well as a lack of respect for the actors, all so that this small group of fans can project their own fantasies onto Luke and Nicola. However, this lack of respect and lack of boundaries also extends to the families, partners and friends of Luke especially, to the point that these fans have harassed and bullied two young women because they ship two actors. There are also reports that members of Luke's family have been doxxed, as well as the family of his girlfriend - people who are not in the entertainment industry, not in the spotlight and who don't seek to be so.
Over the recent months as information about Nicola's relationship has leaked it has been interesting to note that neither Nicola, nor her partner, have received a fraction of the bullying, harassment and toxicity that Luke and his girlfriend has. The anger and hatred of these people appears to be directed solely at the female partner, not the male partner. It is sad that the actors, and those close to them, have to deal with this from those that claim to be their fans.
