‘Heartstopper’ Star Kit Connor Forced to Come Out as Bisexual: “I Think Some of You Missed the Point of the Show”

Heartstopper star Kit Connor returned to Twitter after announcing he was leaving the platform back in September to come out as bisexual. Although, according to the actor, he felt forced to do so by fans of the show.

In the tweet, Connor wrote, “Back for a minute. I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye.”

The Netflix dramedy, which is based on Alice Oseman’s books of the same name, follows teenage Nick Nelson (Connor), a star rugby player who befriends Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), an openly gay student, and begins a romantic relationship with him. The show’s first season was released in April and was renewed for two more seasons shortly after.

While Connor didn’t open up about exactly why he felt forced to come out, he was recently accused of “queerbaiting” after photos of him holding hands with his A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow co-star Maia Reficco emerged. Fans began to speculate the accusations as part of the reason why he left Twitter in September, calling it a “silly silly app.”

Oseman, who created and wrote Heartstopper, jumped in to defend the actor by replying to the tweet in which he came out.

“I truly don’t understand how people can watch Heartstopper and then gleefully spend their time speculating about sexualities and judging based on stereotypes,” she wrote. “I hope all those people are embarrassed as FUCK. Kit you are amazing.”

In an interview with Variety, Connor spoke about what he hopes the show can mean for young queer people. He said, “To have a show where you see queer people being happy and being together and united as a group, I think there’s something really beautiful about that. I think that shows like Euphoria that are very queer are still very much sort of adult in many ways because they are very dark and gritty. I think it’s really important to have a show that is just portraying queer love and queer beauty.”

The first season of Heartstopper is currently streaming on Netflix.