‘Bridgerton’ Star Nicola Coughlan Speaks out After Fans Comment Over Her Appearance

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan took to Instagram over the weekend to ask Instagram users not to comment on her body. Although many of the comments she receives are from people who are “not trying to be offensive,” the 35-year-old Irish star noted that it was “really hard to take the weight” of seeing thousands of comments about how she looks. Coughlan is best known for playing Penelope Featherington on Bridgerton and Clare Devlin on Derry Girls.

“Hello! So just a thing… if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” Coughlan wrote. “Most people are being nice and not trying to be offensive but I am just one real-life human being and it’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day.”

She later said she understands that as a television star, people will have opinions about her work. “If you have an opinion about me that’s ok, I understand I’m on TV and that people will have things to think and say but I beg you not to send it to me directly,” she wrote, adding a heart emoji.

Coughlan included a picture she took at her New York hotel before she attended a Saturday Night Live taping. “It’s unrelated to this post but delighted with my hair in it,” she wrote. Coughlan attended the Jan. 22 show, and posted a photo of herself hugging Kristen Wiig, who made a surprise appearance on the show.

Coughlan, who was born in Galway, Ireland, shot to stardom on Derry Girls, which is available on Netflix in the U.S. The show’s third series will air in the U.K. in 2022. She also recently finished filming Bridgerton Season 2, which will premiere on Netflix on March 25. In a recent interview with Elle, Coughlan said she could never have predicted the show’s success around the world.

“I didn’t think it was going to be the biggest show on Netflix, I didn’t think that level,” Coughlan said. “But I had lunch with Phoebe [Dynevor] maybe about two months before it came out. And I said, ‘I think your life’s going to change.’ And she was like, ‘No, I don’t know. I’ve done things before that people thought was going to be huge and it hasn’t worked out.’ But I just had that instinct about it.”

Coughlan isn’t the only actor to call out comments about their body. In January, Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey was frustrated to see comments from viewers who didn’t think her character Shauna’s relationship with Peter Gadiot’s Adam was believable. “I’m just like, ‘Wow, really? That’s where people’s heads are at, that the most important thing is being thin or young?’” Lynskey, 44, told Rolling Stone. Lynskey’s Yellowjackets co-stars Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis also supported her when a member of the show’s production commented about Lynskey’s weight. Lewis even wrote a letter in her defense to the show’s producers.