What We Know About Dan and Phil’s Romance Rumors
Dan Howell and Phil Lester, better known to their YouTube fan base as Dan and Phil or Phan, have finally announced their romance. Their statement, made through a lengthy YouTube video, puts to rest years of speculation about their relationship. While the announcement was a happy one that explained how their love story developed, it also served as a somber reminder that Dan and Phil faced many nerve-racking years when viewers tried to out them before they were ready to take their relationship so public. Let’s take a look at what’s unfolded.
How did Dan Howell and Phil Lester meet?
Most of Dan Howell and Phil Lester’s fans know them from YouTube. It is also the way they first met each other. According to several sources, Dan Howell reached out to Phil Lester back in 2009 after discovering his YouTube channel. They became friends quickly and eventually agreed to meet up. After that, they began making content as partners, though they never acknowledged a romance.
By 2011, they were making content together regularly and had moved into a shared home in Manchester. They still refused to acknowledge a romantic connection. They moved to London, once again sharing a living space, in 2014. While they seemed to live independently beginning in 2020, apparently, they have always been together. Howell and Lester revealed in a new YouTube upload that, while reluctant to label their romance, they’ve been together for 16 years.
They each came out in separate videos in 2019
While Lester and Howell have officially gone public with their romance, it is not news that they are gay. The duo each posted their own coming-out video in 2019. Dan Howell posted his video first, discussing his feelings on his sexuality, fan speculation, and the internal and external struggles he faced to get to a place of acceptance. The video was lengthy and emotionally raw.
Two weeks later, on June 30, 2019, Phil Lester shared his own coming-out story in a separate video. Lester’s video was a bit more matter-of-fact, with the internet personality focusing on what it was like to grow up gay. He also included a message to others who might be on the same journey.
The videos went viral and received a lot of praise, with fans telling both Lester and Howell that they were proud of them. The BBC called Howell’s video a landmark coming-out moment. Other news outlets praised him for his storytelling. The videos, posted so close together, however, reignited speculation about Howell and Lester’s relationship, and whether they were just friends and business partners, or life partners, too. Despite being open about their sexuality, it took several more years for them to be willing to disclose their own romance.
Why didn’t they go public with their relationship initially?
Dan Howell and Phil Lester have spent years working together as internet personalities, but they refused to label their relationship. In their latest video, where they finally acknowledged their romantic relationship, they explained why they were reluctant to share their romantic life with the world. Howell and Lester explained that they protected their romance for several reasons. Howell noted that he was “deep in the closet” when his romance with Lester began. Lester, for his part, said he wanted to give Howell the space he needed to work through those feelings and come out in a way that was comfortable for him. They went on to explain how nerve-wracking the years of speculation had been, and how emotionally taxing it was to have people constantly trying to out them. They noted the danger in such behavior and how it could have ended badly.
The sensitive nature of their journeys wasn’t the only reason they shied away from labeling their relationship. The duo also explained that after coming out as gay in separate videos, they avoided publicly labeling their relationship, so they would not be pigeonholed into certain types of content. In short, they didn’t want to be seen as each other’s boyfriends or romantic partners to the internet at large, especially after spending years building a fanbase without making their romance a main channel attraction. Other couples have discussed how making content with their partner actually ruined their relationship. It seems like Lester and Howell had heeded those warnings.
