Francesca and Michaela’s Sapphic Love Story Is Coming To Bridgerton Season 5

*Spoilers for Bridgerton season 4 in this article*

Extremely exciting news, gentle readers – sapphic yearning will sweep the Ton in the next season of Bridgerton, with Francesca and Michaela getting their highly anticipated queer love story in season 5.

Bridgerton season 4 gave us the handsomely bisexual Benedict Bridgerton already, but Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and Michaela (Masali Baduza) will be the first queer-presenting mainstage relationship of the show.

Each season of Bridgerton focuses on one of the Bridgerton brood and their romantic prospects, and it’s big news that we’re finally going to get a queer love story front and centre. The decision isn’t without controversy – in the books upon which the hit show is based on, Michaela is actually a man named Michael, and some fans are upset at the change. Some fans are also homophobic.

In the most recent season of Bridgerton, we’re treated to the opening stages of Francesca and Michaela’s friendship – which is stressed after Francesca’s husband and Michaela’s cousin, John Kilmartin, suddenly dies.

Season 5 begins two years after John’s death, when Francesca decides to reenter the marriage mart for practical reasons. But when John’s cousin Michaela returns to London to tend to the Kilmartin estate, Francesca’s complicated feelings will have her questioning whether to stick to her pragmatic intentions or pursue her inner passions. As the season announcement video said “love begins again”.

“More than ever, Season 5 is going to be about yearning,” said Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell, about Francesca and Michaela’s second-chance romance.

“It feels groundbreaking. Obviously, there are a lot of great shows that have depicted queer love. We’re not the first by any means,” Brownell says. “But to make an entire Bridgerton season about a sapphic relationship feels huge.”

Brownell has been foreshadowing the queerness of the upcoming season since season 3:

“I’ve said from the beginning that this show, in so many ways, is about allowing people to see themselves represented, allowing themselves to dream, and imagine themselves in these fantastical roles,” Brownell says. “It never felt right to not be inclusive of queer love as well within that fantasy.”