Derry Girls and Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan has opened up about her "rare" friendship with Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye and revealed how they first connected with one another.
Before they became friends they were fans of each other's work, he adored Derry Girls and she fell in love with him after watching Queer Eye.
In an interview with People magazine for their 2021 Pride issue, Coughlan recalled her first encounter with Van Ness: "Queer Eye had just come out, and I was like, 'I don't know who that person is, but I love that person."
Coughlan was so enthralled by the super-hairstylist that she had Van Ness's face screen-printed on a sweatshirt and tagged him in the photo on social media.
Put on the new @QueerEye and lasted 2 seconds into the opening credits and I'm already crying, I love it so, so much
— Nicola Coughlan (@nicolacoughlan) June 17, 2018
Of course I’m wearing my @jvn jumper, need you even ask?
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗 pic.twitter.com/vMoDkVRgBo
They connected via Instagram DM in 2018 and soon became fast friends.
"Our friendship really is just so special to me because Nicola's been in this industry for a minute, and I haven't, and there's just been so many times where I had questions and didn't know what to do, and needed feedback," Van Ness said.
"She's helped me navigate all sorts of situations that I never thought I'd find myself in."
They finally met in person a year later when Coughlan visited New York. They went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child together on Broadway and during the intermission, Van Ness told Coughlan that he wanted to publicly reveal his HIV diagnosis.
"A lot of folks in my orbit were like, 'Are you sure?' But Nicola has consistently been so supportive," Van Ness said. "We are consistently there for each other."
Coughlan added: "It felt like we had met before. It just felt like we'd been friends forever. Then our friend groups just sort of melded together.
"The fact that our friends and family know one another and have love for one another - that's incredibly special, and it's rare in the world. It just means so, so much, honestly."
