Fan encounters aren’t always dreamy; they can be scary and downright uncomfortable. This was the case for Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan. The actress recently opened up about some discomforting fan behavior.
Nicola Coughlan shares her uncomfortable fan encounter
Nicola Coughlan, the esteemed Bridgerton actress, spoke to Elle UK magazine about a disturbing fan encounter. She said: “I remember this really drunk girl once talking to me in a bathroom, being like, ‘I loved [“Bridgerton”] because of your body, and she started talking about my body, and I was like, ‘I want to die. I hate this so much…’ “
“It’s really hard when you work on something for months and months of your life, you don’t see your family, you really dedicate yourself, and then it comes down to what you look like—it’s so boring.” She added.
Recently, Taylor Zakhar Perez spoke out about fan behavior at the SAG-AFTRA Actor Awards 2026. He shared the story of being followed and chased by a fan from China back to his home. Coughlan, on the other hand, faced heavy criticism online. After her casting in Bridgerton as Penelope Featherington, she faced immense online backlash.
She was criticized and trolled relentlessly by several fans for her body. The actress was subjected to fat-shaming and incessant online bullying, where most online trolls mocked her for her body weight. At last, she spoke to Elle UK in the same interview, clapping back at trolls for fat-shaming her. She stated:
“You know what was really bizarre was, when I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to, so I had lost a bunch of weight—I was probably a size 10, and one of the corsets was a size 8. And then people talked about how I was plus size, and I was like, ‘How f—– are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’”
Previously, Bridgerton star Simone Ashley also supported Coughlan. The actress condemned online harassment and defended her co-star publicly.
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