SO, WHO IS SHE?
Bridgerton gave clues about the identity of Lady Whistledown. Bethonie Butler explores whether they really added up.
Note: This story discusses the identity of Lady Whistledown on Bridgerton. Spoilers ahead.
If you've finished the first season of Netflix's lavish period drama Bridgerton, you know the identity of Lady Whistledown, the brazen, anonymous author whose gossip-filled scandal sheets leave the Ton — that's 19th-century British high society — positively shaken. If you haven't finished the Shonda Rhimes-produced series, you might want to put this aside and come back after you've seen the big reveal. (Seriously, spoiler alert.)
“You do not know me, and rest assured you never shall,” Lady Whistledown, voiced by an especially saucy Julie Andrews, tells her readers in the show's first episode. To her credit, the elusive scribe does an impressive job at covering her tracks.
But the show, adapted from the Bridgerton book series by Julia Quinn, ultimately reveals Lady Whistledown's identity far sooner than its source material. It's Penelope (Pen) Featherington (played by Nicola Coughlan), the bookish and most self-aware daughter in Grosvenor Square's most ridiculed household.
Even before the reveal, the show drops plenty of hints about its narrator. Let's take a look at the biggest ones:
SHE'S NOT A FAN OF THE TON'S TRADITIONS
“The time has come to place our bets on the upcoming social season,” Whistledown tells us at the start of the debut episode. Her words are intentional here, of course, because the annual marriage market is pure (and brutal) sport. Before we even meet the titular Bridgerton family — which Whistledown describes as “noted for its bounty of perfectly handsome sons and perfectly beautiful daughters” — we get a ferocious breakdown of the Featherington household: “three misses foisted upon the marriage market like sorrowful sows by their tasteless, tactless mama.” This is our first hint that Whistledown is at the very least Featherington-adjacent.
SHE KNOWS THE TON'S BEST- KEPT SECRET
Perhaps the biggest giveaway arrives in the sixth episode, when Marina Thompson's scandalous pregnancy — which predates her arrival in Grosvenor Square — is revealed to the aristocracy.
Only a few people know that Marina is with child, and we can assume the anti-reading Lady Featherington isn't the one churning out the gossip sheets. Penelope, on the other hand, has earned her cousin's trust, and thus knowledge of her scandal. Pen also has reason to expose it, as Marina attempts to beguile Eloise Bridgerton's brother, Colin, into marrying her — without disclosing the pregnancy.
“You can choose anyone but him. He is my friend,” Pen tells Marina. “I've known him forever. And I do not want him to be tricked and deceived into a lifelong commitment.”
SHE DIDN'T ( GASP!) WRITE ANYTHING ABOUT THE QUEEN'S LUNCHEON
“Lady Whistledown only writes what she sees,” the wise Lady Danbury tells Lady Bridgerton in the première. And we see that play out in episode 7 as the Featheringtons are frozen out of high-society events, including the Queen's luncheon.
Before the Featheringtons are turned away, Eloise and Penelope have a brief exchange. “Lady Whistledown has gone too far this time,” Eloise tells Penelope about their entangled family drama. Pen smiles faintly and says, “And I thought you her greatest admirer.”
Eloise concludes Whistledown must be a tradesperson — someone who has access to the members of the Ton but isn't part of high society herself.
But later, as Eloise realizes that among others Madame Delacroix couldn't possibly be Whistledown, the real deal is revealed: Penelope, a.k.a. Lady Whistledown, in her carriage on the way to the press.