In a historic first for America’s pop-culture repository, People Magazine named a gay man Sexiest Man Alive for 2025.

“It’s a huge honor,” actor Jonathan Bailey told the magazine in a suitably sexy cover story.

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“Obviously, I’m incredibly flattered. And it’s completely absurd,” he said, laughing.

Bailey shot to popular fame in 2020 with the steamy neo-historical Netflix series Bridgerton, as Anthony, 9th Viscount Bridgerton. By 2025, he had top billing in the critically acclaimed summer blockbuster reboot, Jurassic World: Rebirth.

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The actor and dancer (he studied ballet as a lad) earned legions of young fans in between with his big screen debut in the mega-musical hit Wicked as “hetero-camp” scene-stealer Prince Fiyero. The sequel, Wicked: For Good, bows in November.

Bailey is the 37th pick for the Sexiest Man Alive “crown,” awarded by the magazine over the title’s 40-year history. The first was Mel Gibson in 1985.

Standing 5’11” in the sand, Bailey warms up the gloomy, beachside setting for his cover story shoot south of London with humor, tight tanned abs, and plenty of views of his Calvin Klein waistbands.

“Within minutes, everyone in the room looks flushed,” says People’s interlocutor, after Bailey, styled in a cable knit sweater, joins her for a glass of Bordeaux for their interview.

“It’s also quickly obvious why the English actor, 37, brimming with charm, wit and almost unfairly handsome looks, has become one of the most irresistible stars in Hollywood.”

Bailey’s road to Sexiest Stardom began at age five when his grandmother took him to see a production of Oliver! in London. He secured a talent agent at 15, and he’s been working ever since.

Bailey’s wide range includes contemporary theatrical productions like Cock in London’s West End in 2022; King Lear with Sir Ian McKellen in 2018; and a gender-swapping version of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, which earned Bailey the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical in 2019.

In 2023, Bailey received a Primetime Emmy nod for his portrayal of a gay Congressional staffer in Showtime’s Fellow Travelers with Matt Bomer.

While committed to visibility and representation — Bailey founded the charity The Shameless Fund in 2024 to support LGBTQ+ organizations — the actor is surprisingly private about his romantic life.

He was linked to the actor James Ellis several years ago, but recently has only shared that he’s with “a lovely man.” That was in 2023.

Bailey came out publicly in 2018.

In a New York Times profile of the actor in 2022, West End director Marianne Elliot described Bailey as “the nicest person you could ever hope to meet. But when he acts, he can have an edge, which can feel dangerous in a great way.”

She also recounted the story of sharing the news with Company composer Sondheim that Bailey would be starring in Cock.

Sondheim, she recalled, “literally stopped in his tracks, closed his eyes, put his hand on his chest and said, ‘Be still my beating heart.'”

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