Bridgerton season three has had fans discussing the love triangle between Penelope, Lord Debling and Colin Bridgerton – and it sounds like many of them think that our sweet Pen might have made the wrong decision with her choice. Warning, contains spoilers for season three…

The show saw Penelope miss out on a proposal from Lord Debling after he realised that she was in love with Colin before Colin confessed his true feelings for her and the pair got hot and heavy in a carriage – before he finally popped the question.

However, fans have taken to social media to share their thoughts – namely that Lord Debling was the ideal choice to marry Penelope. Pretending to be Penelope, TikTok user Babbity Kate said: “What? No Lord Debling, don’t marry me and then leave me for three years to pick new furniture for your enormous house, fill the library with new books and work on my personal projects in peace!

“No, don’t let me do my own thing and then come back periodically on a predictable schedule so that we can both enjoy time together because we are both very nice and attractive and interesting people who do like each other, and maybe someday we’ll have a more romantic loving relationship but in the meantime, we can talk, and we can sleep together, and it will be nice. That’s a fate worse than death! You can’t marry him Pen!”

Plenty of other people were quick to comment, with one posting: “A handsome and nice rich man?? Lord Debling was the real diamond of the season.” Another person wrote: “I understand why Cressida moved in swiftly, I would too.”

A third person joked: “At this point, Colin seems like the consolation prize.” Speaking about how they would love their own peace and quiet, another fan posted: “Colin: ‘He’s leaving for three years!’ Me: ‘AND?!?’”

Sam Phillips, who plays Lord Debling, opened up to HELLO! about the character, saying: “He’s a complex character. He’s introverted and likes to watch from the peripherals of society and I think that makes him quite interesting because he’s not honking after a lot of attention. He’s just standing and looking from the outside – that was quite juicy to play.”

He added: “There were nods to the fact that he’s a conservationist with some of the colours – the greens… I just wanted him to look a bit different than the average member of the ton because he’s quite bold in his choice of interests. With the colours as well, I wanted to make sure that they were slightly more interesting or different.”