This Absolutely Fabulous character is gay, Jennifer Saunders confirms
This Absolutely Fabulous character is gay! (BBC)
Absolutely Fabulous creator and star Jennifer Saunders has confirmed that a character from the beloved sitcom is gay – and it’s not who we thought!
Saunders wrote and starred in Ab Fab, which aired its first episode in 1992, as Edina ‘Eddie’ Monsoon, the OG PR diva. She appeared alongside Joanna Lumley‘s often-inebriated fashion journalist Patricia ‘Patsy’ Stone and Bubble – Eddie’s useless PA – played by Jane Horrocks.
And while many Ab Fab fans would have sworn like the ‘b*tch troll from hell’ themself then it was Eddie’s daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha) who was of a sapphic persuasion, it’s been revealed in old notes from Saunders that it was actually Bubble who was more likely to be getting down at the Pink Pony Club.
Aired during the Gold TV special Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out, Saunders – much to even her own surprise – makes the discovery while searching her notes on the character.
“‘Bubble is gay’, it says here,” Saunders told the camera. “Bubble is gay! I never knew that.”
The note continued: “What is her girlfriend like?”
Viewers of Absolutely Fabulous never found out too much about Bubble’s personal life – and certainly not any more about her being gay – something that Saunders then reflected upon.
“She was a mystery,” Jennifer said. “We never went too much into Bubble, because it’s quite nice just to have a slightly surreal character.”
It’s not the first time we’ve received a retroactive Absolutely Fabulous reveal: in 2016, Lumley claimed that Patsy “was transgender”.
Absolutely Fabulous enjoyed five series and four specials (including two Christmas editions) broadcast between 1992 and 2004; it later returned for three 20th anniversary episodes in 2011-12 and a film in 2016.
Saunders confirmed in 2020 to Daily Mail that “That. Is. It.” with Ab Fab content – but then teased a spin-off, possibly featuring Lumley, in 2023.
Whichever form the Absolutely Fabulous spinoff takes, we have one request; more gay, please.
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