YouTubers, comedians and recently announced couple Dan Howell and Phil Lester have shared their first public statement after confirming their 16-year relationship.
The comedy duo revealed their hidden long-term romance in a YouTube video entitled “Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship?” on 13 October.
In the video, the couple delved into “one of the biggest conspiracies in the history of the internet,” and opened up about why now was the right time for them to confirm the years-long speculation about them.
At the time of writing, the 46-minute long video has almost 2.5 million views, with social media exploding with heartwarming reactions. The revelation also became headline news globally, with the couple trending on X, formerly Twitter.
The couple have now addressed the startling response to their revelation with a short but sweet post on Instagram.
Sharing a selfie of themselves cosied up on a sofa, Lester with his arm around Howell’s shoulder, the duo wrote: “Just two partners feeling grateful for everyone’s thoughtful messages and insane s**tposts.”
The adorable photo has amassed almost half a million likes at the time of writing – more than the original relationship reveal post received on Instagram.
In their YouTube video, the comedy duo spoke at length about their relationship and why they waited so long to reveal that they are a romantic item.
The video begins with Dan Howell asking: “All right, let’s get this over with. Are Dan and Phil in a relationship?”
Lester then simply confirms: “Yes.”
Howell, 34, and Lester, 38, first met in 2009, with Howell saying in the video that they “fell into it hard and fast” that year.
“So fast that we never labelled, we just ended up living together and here we are”.
The couple began living with each other in 2011, and frequently appeared in each other’s YouTube content, as well as publishing content collaboratively.
As a duo, Howell and Lester became two of the OG internet content creators, and were prolific in the YouTube influencer era of the early 2010s.
They both came out as gay in 2019, and in their announcement video, Howell discussed being “deep in the closet” in his mid-twenties and keeping his sexuality a secret from everyone close to him.
The intense speculation around their relationship also dissuaded them from discussing it publicly previously, as did their hope to be known as a comedy duo rather than a couple.
“If it’s Dan and Phil the boyfriends introduced on the radio,” Lester said, with Howell adding: “It sounds like: ‘Oh, that’s their gimmick’.”
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