Nicola Coughlan has addressed those Bridgerton romance rumours and alluded to her secret dating history after her nude sexy nude scene sent fans wild

She’s the belle of the ball in the latest series of Bridgerton – and Nicola Coughlan’s raciest scene yet has got fans going wild as the second part of the season was released.

Stripping down to absolutely nothing for the steamy scene between her character Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton ( Luke Newton ), episode five featured an almost six-minute-long sex scene between the new couple, which started with Colin standing behind Penelope and slowly undoing her corset before admiring her naked body. As things heated up, Colin told her to ‘lie down’ and they moved their R-rated activities to the chaise lounge in the room.

While Luke’s bare bum was shown, Nicola was fully naked for the scene as she previously revealed it was “her choice” as it was the “biggest f**k you” to the bodyshamers. During the steamy scene, an inexperienced Penelope urges Colin to “tell her what to do” and he tells her: “I will do everything.” She demanded: “No, tell me,” before he told her: “Touch me… anywhere.”

He warned her that this “may hurt” and the two proceeded to have sex. When they finished, Penelope was quick to ask if they could go again. The entire scene lasted a whopping five minutes and 50 seconds. Nicola and Luke discussed their saucy scenes in many interviews, revealing that they broke furniture in one scene.

Nicola Coughlan’s raciest scene yet has got fans going wild ( 
Image:
Netflix)

They got so into another scene that they didn’t even hear the director yell “cut”. Nicola said in one interview: “We did break a piece of furniture while doing one scene. It’s a little bit like a stunt in which they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna do this, this, and this’. But then they gave us freedom and we had a lot of say in how we did those scenes and what we wanted to do. That makes you feel quite empowered.

“So we felt super. They were actually really enjoyable. I didn’t think they would be. It was fun.” The Derry Girls actor also revealed it was “her choice” to be fully naked in one scene as she wanted to silence all the body-shaming trolls who kept “having conversations surrounding her body”.

Private romances

While Nicola bravely bared all to the camera for the show, she is intensely secretive about her own love life and keeps it far away from the camera. She’s never openly spoken about her past relationships, nor posted about her boyfriends to social media while she’s been in the spotlight.

However, she was rumoured to previously be in a relationship with actor Laurie Kynaston, who appeared on an episode of Derry Girls. He had been cast as a Protestant student who had been paired with her character Clare while on a day of cultural exchange. Their romance had never been confirmed by either star, but they had been pictured together looking close.

Most recently, due to their sizzling chemistry on screen, fans have been speculating that Luke Newton and Nicola are an item in real life. Nicola has directly responded to the rumours and said that while she finds it flattering that their acting has translated well on screen, they are just “lovely friends”.

Nicola has addressed romance rumours with Luke Newton ( 
Image:
WireImage)

“We think it’s really sweet, I think because we truly love each other, you know what I mean?” Nicola said. “He is a really special person in my life, and I got to do this experience with him. I’ll never get to do something like this again, on this scale. Like are you kidding me? Like, we’re here in New York City, having our premiere. So it’s so nice having such a lovely friend that I can do all this with.”

She also explained how their friendship has made the kissing and explicit scenes much more comfortable to do. “We would be like, in between scenes, and they were like, ‘Do you wanna get up and put your clothes on?’ We’re like, ‘We’ll just chill here.’ Like, in under the blankets. But then we have the advantage of knowing each other for years.”

Nicola has also recently alluded to dating when speaking about the differences in dating in the Recency era and now. Speaking to Marie Claire, she said: “I think nowadays they smell better. That’s what I always think about the past…we think of it as so romantic and lovely, but then there was no personal hygiene. [It’s] good because we have a choice now, but then there’s that thing of the paradox of choice. We have too much choice, it’s not good. So, there’s probably good and bad things for both.”

Nicola’s height and age

Nicola’s character Penelope was around 17 years old at the time of the first season of Bridgerton. As the leading lady in season three, she is 19 years old and fretting about her position in society and becoming a spinster.

In the novel the season is based on – Romancing Mr Bridgerton – Penelope is actually much older at 28 years old. While Nicola is 37 years old. She is also 5ft 1 (1.55m) tall.