The ‘Bridgerton’ pair no one is talking about: Lady Whistledown and Queen Charlotte

“The Ton is a very insular place,” says Golda Rosheuvel, who plays her, in an interview last week. “And to have somebody come in and kind of shake that up a little bit is intriguing to the queen. There’s a lot of respect there for this person, who has dared to come in and shake up the Ton. There’s a sense of ‘how dare you,’ but also there’s a sense of ‘who is this?’ And I slightly respect her. Because this is a dangerous thing to be doing and whoever it is has the respect of the woman at the top of the food chain.”

Mapping Lady Whistledown and the Queen’s future

By the end of Season 3, the queen’s efforts finally pay off, and she learns it’s the newly married Penelope Bridgerton, née Featherington (Nicola Coughlan). Now that Lady Whistledown’s identity is out in the open, what kind of relationship will the queen have with her?

“That was a really big moment, when she finds out that it’s actually Penelope,” Rosheuvel says, adding the queen first took notice of Penelope when she sees her walk down the stairs in the green dress in her big “She’s All That” reveal at the beginning of Season 3.

That moment comes full circle when Penelope is revealed as Lady Whistledown at her Dankworth-Finch Ball, wearing an emerald-green dress similar to the one she wore in the earlier scene. After Penelope explains to the crowd why she started writing the society papers and the power they gave herher column, she requests mercy from the queen. Charlotte, wearing a satisfied smile, says: “What is life without a little gossip?”