Jonathan Bailey Is Playing Anthony With Unhinged Levels of Horniness for Kate in ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 — and I Love It

Now that we’ve come down from the climactic high of Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin’s (Luke Newton) scintillating carriage ride, we need to talk about the other couple steaming things up in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1: Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his beloved wife Kate (Simone Ashley). While the newlyweds don’t have a ton of screen time in this season of the Netflix hit, they make the most of it. Kate has deftly assumed the mantle of Lady Bridgerton while Anthony is a man consumed with one thought: to bone his wife. It’s honestly delightful to watch! Jonathan Bailey plays Anthony Bridgerton with almost unhinged levels of horniness for his wife in Bridgerton Season 3! He must make love to her all the time! Take her on her writing desk! Interrupt a conversation to dance — and kiss! — her in front of the ton!

The carriage ride might have been the most scintillating scene in Bridgerton Season 3 so far, but Anthony Bridgerton is the character most obsessed with sex, and I love it!

Bridgerton Season 2 offered fans of the Shondaland show something of a slow burn compared to what we’ve seen in Seasons 1 and, now, 3. Bridgerton Season 2 was a loose adaptation of Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me, a story about how in his quest to find the perfect bride, Anthony Bridgerton gets fabulously in his own way. Anthony decides that he is going to pursue the “diamond of the season,” Miss Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran). The problem is he clearly sprung on her spirited older sister, Kate. The two deny their feelings, out of concern for Edwina, and in doing so prolong their yearning. When the two finally do consummate their romance al fresco, it’s quick, illicit, and hot. But all too short.

“Kanthony” fans may have eventually gotten the happily ever after they were looking for, but not the euphoric honeymoon montage that made Bridgerton Season 1 so popular. Sure, Jonathan Bailey gave us moments like Anthony being turned on by Kate’s scent, but the heartthrob really wasn’t able to let loose the character’s inner freak. Well, that is, until now.

Bridgerton Season 3 finds Kate and Anthony in the throes of newlywed bliss. The uptight Anthony of the past no longer feels the need to micromanage his family’s affairs, finally trusting Benedict (Luke Thompson) to fill in and sister Francesca (Hannah Dodd) to move about the marriage mart at her own speed. Instead, Anthony has a new mission consuming his every thought and that’s how much can he make his wife come. (No, but seriously, even Kate has to point out that most of his endeavors are for her pleasure and not to actually conceive an heir.)

What makes all of this so darn steamy and so incredibly charming, though, is Jonathan Bailey’s performance. Over three seasons, Bailey has mapped a journey for Anthony from grief to joy. When we spoke with him all the way back in 2020, ahead of the Bridgerton Season 1 premiere, Bailey not only opened up about how Edmund Bridgerton’s (Rupert Evans) sudden death left a void in Anthony’s life, but put him in a high-pressure position.

“At the age of 20, he not only lost his father, but became the head of a family. Suddenly, he had to be the surrogate father to a lot of his amazing siblings, and a sort of surrogate husband to his mother,” Bailey said. “He doesn’t have any space to make any mistakes. He’s making them under such high pressure. His self esteem just really suffers.

“I just want him to be okay. I want to see him smile. And I want to see him dance. Because he deserves the happiness afforded to other characters much earlier in their lives.”

What we get to see in Anthony Bridgerton in Bridgerton Season 3 is the culmination of that wish. Through his romance with Kate, Anthony has found the life partner who relieves that pressure gauge. He gets to smile. He gets to dance. He gets to make love to his beautiful wife whenever he wants, which is all the time!

Anthony vibrates with joy in every Bridgerton Season 3 scene we’ve seen him in so far. It’s not simply a guilty pleasure to watch him pounce on Kate, but a glorious conclusion to the story that Bailey has been devoted to since Bridgerton Day 1.