Nicola Coughlan Doubts Regé-Jean Page Will Return To ‘Bridgerton’ On ‘WWHL’: “He’s Like A Movie Star Now”

By Samantha Nungesser Twitter @samjnungesser
Published April 3, 2024, 10:01 a.m. ET

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Nicola Coughlan

Long live the Duke of Hastings. On Tuesday night’s (April 2) episode of Watch What Happens Live, Nicola Coughlan disappointed millions when she said there is “not much” of a chance that Regé-Jean Page will ever return to Bridgerton.

Page had his breakout role as Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings in the first season of the Netflix romance series, in which he not only stole the heart of Phoebe Dynevor‘s Daphne Bridgerton, but also the 82 million households around the world that tuned into the show.

Despite its global success, Page left the series after Season 1. When a virtual fan on WWHL asked Coughlan — who also stars in the show — for the chances of him reprising his role in the future, she offered a rather unfortunate response.

“I think not much,” she said. “Because I think he’s like a movie star now. But the Duke will live on in our hearts forever.”

The actor previously opened up about his decision to exit Bridgerton, noting that his character’s story was complete after the first season.

“I signed up to do a job and I did the job and then I did some other jobs,” he told Vanity Fair last year. “That’s it. That’s the story. I wish it was more glamorous than that.”

Page continued, “We finished the story. The temptation would be to roll with the distractions and go, ‘Oh, well, the story went really well so we can kind of change this up and make some other stuff up, I guess.’ That was never what we’d signed up to do.”

'WWHL'
Photo: Bravo

For those who don’t know, each season of Bridgerton follows a different Bridgerton sibling’s love story. The show’s upcoming third season, which comes out on May 16, is set to follow Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Coughlan).

“It’s a spicy one,” Coughlan teased on WWHL. “In a spicy scene that we filmed, we broke a piece of furniture. Not intentionally.”

She continued, “But might have been good if I didn’t — you know, I’m English in the show and Irish in real life — if I didn’t break it and go, ‘Oh my god, Luke, we just broke this!’ It would’ve been better. They could’ve included the cute moment that we broke it.”

Watch What Happens Live airs Sunday through Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.