Nicola Coughlan says she’s ‘not plus-size’ & was an 8-10 for nude Bridgerton scenes as she shares fan comment she hates

BRIDGERTON actress Nicola Coughlan has hit back at being labelled “plus-sized” and revealed she was a size 8-10 during her nude scenes in the hit show.

The actress, 39, said she finds criticism or attention around her body “boring”, and said she has “no interest” in promoting body positivity.

Speaking as the cover star of ELLE UK’s April edition, Nicola claimed she had “lost a bunch of weight” for season three of the bonkbuster period drama. 

However, she has “hated” speaking to fans about her figure when it is brought up.

Nicola said: “The thing I say sometimes that p****s people off is I have no interest in body positivity. 

“When I was a kid growing up, I never thought about that. I didn’t look at actors and think about their bodies. So, I actually don’t care.

“There’s a lot of things I’m passionate about, it’s not one of them… That’s someone else’s thing. It’s not mine.”

Speaking about her weight loss for her role as Penelope Featherington, Nicola explained: “You know what was really bizarre was, when I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to, so I had lost a bunch of weight – I was probably a size 10 and one of the corsets was a size eight.”

Despite shifting weight, Nicola said it is “f****d” how people still classed her as “plus size”.

She recalled speaking to a girl drunk in a bathroom who told her she had loved Bridgerton because of her body, which made her “wanted to die”, as she “hated it so much.”

Part of the reason for not wishing to talk about her weight is that she said she feels it dilutes her work as an actress. 

She added that is “so f*****g boring” when you “work on something for months and months of your life”, and are away from family, and then the commentary is on weight.

The Irish star, who also gained a huge fan base for her role as Clare Devlin in the hit Channel 4 series Derry Girls, said she has been worried about being typecast and thought “am I going to play this character forever?”

However, she said she feels “lucky” Bridgerton came around as it was “different right away.”

Nicola has starred in all four seasons of the show, which first aired in 2020 and dropped its latest installment last month. 

Nicola is currently dating actor Jake Dunn, and their relationship came to light in October 2024, though they are believed to have been dating since at least August of the same year.

Prior to her relationship with Jake, there were rumours linking Nicola romantically to her Bridgerton co-star Luke Newton.

However, Nicola has since clarified that their relationship is purely platonic.

In October 2024, she told Time: “A lot of people really want me to marry Luke.

“We have this gorgeous friendship. We have such a love for one another and this experience that I’ll never have with someone else again.

“Isn’t it gorgeous that a man and woman can have that sort of relationship with one another?”

The April issue of ELLE UK is on sale from 10 March.