Following the saucy gay moments of Heated Rivalry, people have been wondering, questioning, and demanding answers about the sexualities of its lead stars, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.
The debate surrounding whether straight people should play queer roles is eternal, and no one can seem to agree on an answer. Some heterosexual depictions of queerness, like Cameron in Modern Family, are generally looked upon fondly, but it’s mostly a case-by-case basis.
In the case of Heated Rivalry, and largely because the show is SO FILTHY, people have been wondering about Hudson Williams’ sexuality. Is he gay? Is he straight? Maybe bisexual? Here’s the somewhat mysterious answer, and what the creator of the show had to say about the speculation.
Credit: HBO
Is Hudson Williams gay? None of your business
While we won’t get into the debate surrounding straight actors playing gay roles – mostly because there’s no wrong answer – there’s no denying that Hudson Williams has insane chemistry with his Heated Rivalry co-star, Connor Storrie. Even outside of the show, in the many, many interviews they’ve done, those “bottom yearning eyes” have been a major topic of discussion.
Hudson Williams has *somewhat* addressed the speculation around his sexuality. In an interview with Deadline, he accepted that speculation comes with the territory. It’s just the “nature of celebrity” in the golden age of social media. Despite that, he actively chose to keep his private life, and who he’s sleeping with, in private.
“I think there was never a question for me, when I dreamed of becoming in the public eye, that I would want a level of privacy,” he said.
He also agreed that queer people should play queer roles, explaining: “I want queer people telling queer stories, but there’s also the element of Connor and I, we’re best friends, and we love expressing that physically.”
Credit: HBO
Speculation surrounding Hudson Williams being gay has also taken a toxic turn. People are unpacking his behaviour, pointing out “gay moments” as if there’s only one way to be queer. There was also that video of him making out with Tom Blyth, but that turned out to just be scarily similar lookalikes.
And then there was his “secret girlfriend” he was choosing to hide from the public, but after that was exposed by gossip page DeuxMoi, he said: “I’ve Grown Quite Unfond of You.”
The creator of the show doesn’t actually care
Heated Rivalry is helmed by an out-and-proud gay man called Jacob Tierney, and he was not pleased about the speculation surrounding the lead stars’ sexualities.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to get into that stuff,” Jacob said.
“I’ll tell you something about the casting of both of these roles. You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law. So what you have to gauge is somebody’s enthusiasm and willingness to do the work. And that’s what’s so impressive about both of these guys is they came into this being like, ‘Yeah, we’re here to do this, and we are here to make this story feel authentic and to be as real as possible.’ And they f**king hit it out of the park.”
So, long story short: Hudson Williams might be gay. He also might be bisexual. He also just might like having fun with whoever. Who knows, and who cares. Is anyone really that heterosexual in 2026? It’s called a spectrum for that reason.
That being said, if Hudson and Connor Storrie do end up in a whirlwind romance, they’ll quickly become the David and Victoria Beckham of the modern age. Scratch that, we all know how that’s going.
For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.
Featured image credit:
