Here’s Where Every Major ‘Bridgerton’ Character Ended Up Before Season 2
By the end of the season, Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset’s (Regé-Jean Page) marriage was on shaky ground—largely due to the fact that the duchess was desperate to have children, and the duke denied her the chance to have them.
After Daphne’s plans to get pregnant failed, the newlyweds agreed to live separately shortly after the social season ended.
But after the duchess learned the reason behind Simon’s refusal to bear an heir (his father had neglected him because he stuttered as a child), she came to a better understanding of her husband.
“He made me believe that I had to be flawless to be loved, but he was wrong,” she told her husband at the Hastings ball in the finale. “I’m sick of pretending. And I can’t keep acting like I don’t love you anymore.”
Simon later finds Daphne and tells her that he doesn’t want to be alone, prioritizing his marriage over his vow to end the Hastings bloodline.
In the final moments of the season, viewers watched as the couple welcomed their first child.
Daphne will return for a second season, but Simon will not. Page declined to reprise his role after the first season, explaining to Variety that he had signed a one-year contract with Shondaland. As her husband, King George III, is treated for his failing health, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) has been busy attending social events, finding joy in predicting the season’s games and observing the spectacle around her.
Out of the public eye, she intends to uncover the identity of Whistledown.
In the series finale, the Queen’s team hatched a plan to expose the writer: during one of Whistledown’s trips to deliver the next day’s newspaper to a printing house, the Queen’s team would intercept her.
When Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) learned of the plot, she warned Whistledown just in time to let the writer escape the trap.
The Queen’s reaction to the failed plan is not shown in the series finale. Determined to silence Whistledown as soon as possible after receiving negative coverage in her own papers, the Queen would likely be furious.
