If this is the first you’re hearing of Jake, he’s a 25-year-old actor best known for his role in the Disney+ series Renegade Nell. As for Nicola, she’s the 38-year-old Bridgerton and Derry Girls star — though if you don’t also know who she is, I’m not sure what you’re doing here.
The pair first sparked romance rumors back in August of last year after they were spotted together at a music festival. Jake alluded to the whole thing shortly afterwards by posting a photo of a friend wearing a “Nicola Coughlan” hat paired with a shirt that read “And her perfect breasts” — a reference, of course, to her iconic response to a question about her body type.
Nicola then soft-launched the man on her Instagram story for his birthday, along with a red heart emoji. However, we can all stop speculating as they attended the BAFTA TV Craft Awards nominees’ party together last night.
She’s nominated for the BAFTA Television Craft Award for Female Performance in a Comedy for her part in Big Mood. How nice!
It’s likely that the two are at least somewhat politically aligned, as both Nicola and Jake have worn Artists4Ceasefire pins (including last night). He’s also shared her fundraiser for the trans charity Not A Phase.
In case you thought Nicola was dating her Bridgerton co-star Luke Newton, she previously said of dating rumors, “We think it’s really sweet, I think because we truly love each other…so it’s so nice having such a lovely friend that I can do all this with.”
And I’m sure there’ll be noooooo age gap discourse in the comments…
