Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) might’ve put the quill down, but Bridgerton girlies (and, TBH, me) are not done with Lady Whistledown in the slightest.
So, who’s scribbling the scandal sheets now that our wallflower-turned-main-character has retired? Let’s investigate.
Business Insider reports that showrunner Jess Brownell has confirmed the writers know exactly who the new Whistledown is, and that the twist won’t be a random last‑minute stitch‑up.
“We’ve allowed ourselves to create a genuine mystery with red herrings and clues and whatnot about who Whistledown might be, which we’re really excited about,” she said, adding that she and executive producer Shonda Rhimes have already talked through the identity. She also very politely shaded Gossip Girl, saying, “I know that there were some feelings around like, ‘Wait, what, Dan?’ So, I do think it is important to have clarity of suspect.”
So the answer is in the text, we just have to work for it.
What we actually know from the Bridgerton season 4 finale
Let’s start with the receipts, because it’s what Whistledown would have wanted. In the back half of season four, Penelope formally retires as Lady Whistledown, telling Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) that the power she holds over the Ton is “too great” now that everyone knows who she is.
She points out that she’s no longer an outsider, saying, “I’m no longer a wallflower, an outsider. I am a Bridgerton… Whistledown takes up a space which makes it impossible to deliver good, true, fair gossip.”
So her exit isn’t just vibes; it’s about class, power and the fact she can’t really drag people when she’s literally having tea with the queen.
By the finale, Pen’s moved on — she’s still married to Colin, has a baby, and is working on a novel. Then Colin walks in with a fresh Lady Whistledown pamphlet that Penelope definitely did not write. The new missive, still voiced by Julie Andrews, opens with: “Are you perhaps feeling a little shock? You thought I was gone for good, but far too much transpires for this author to remain silent. It is assuredly a reunion rooted in care and love. Though this time with a very different author.” So whoever’s picked up the quill is someone who cares about the Ton enough to keep narrating its mess, but brings a different perspective.
Jess Brownell has also said they wanted to “let Penelope move onto a next chapter as a novelist” and use a new Whistledown to bring back proper mystery, red herrings and fan theorising, especially now that the show has diverged from Julia Quinn’s books on this point. That means the next author isn’t locked to any book canon, aka she could be anyone.
The obvious suspects
Eloise (Claudia Jesse) is the obvious first suspect: she’s opinionated, allergic to nonsense, and already spent multiple seasons investigating Whistledown. She has both the literacy and the rage for a sharp column, and Brownell has talked about wanting to keep exploring women’s limited choices and the ways they find agency in that world. Eloise taking over the quill would absolutely fit that theme and potentially make up for that dropped storyline in season two where she was pursuing politics.
The downside? Season five is widely expected to centre on her book, now that the show is supposedly back in “book‑accurate romance order”, and we’ve already watched one heroine juggle romance and secret authorship with Pen. Doing it again might feel like a remix rather than a twist. But who knows what will happen with Eloise next season.
In a chat with the star, Claudia told P.TV that just about anything could be in the cards for her character. “[Eloise is] trying her best. I don’t know what she’s gonna do next season. She’s like, ‘fire breathing? I’m just gonna become a fire breather’,” she said and I see the vision!
Cressida, (Jessica Madsen) now Lady Penwood, is another name that keeps coming up in fan chats and coverage. She’s already claimed to be Whistledown once, and she was clever enough to work out Pen’s identity before anyone else and try to monetise it. That’s exactly the strategic thinking you’d expect from someone writing weaponised gossip.
But season four also put a lot of energy into softening her, showing her apologising and trying to build a more stable, less transactional life. She’s now married to someone closer to her age and no longer financially desperate, which removes a huge chunk of motivation to risk her fresh start for a scandal sheet.
Hyacinth (Florence Hunt), on the other hand, is low‑key the most fun candidate. Several outlets and fans have pointed to her as a strong option: she’s young, obsessed with society, and absolutely gutted when Penelope retires, loudly mourning the lack of someone to anoint future diamonds.
She’s also shown learning to “blend in” by pretending to be a maid, which conveniently demonstrates how someone could gather gossip by slipping beneath the ton’s radar. Some viewers have even clocked a slightly more playful, youthful edge in Julie Andrews’ final line delivery and read it as a wink toward Hyacinth.
New contenders
Season four leans harder into class than earlier seasons, which opens the door to some non‑aristocratic suspects. The show spends more time with the people who actually make this world run — housekeepers, maids, footmen.
Before season four aired, Brownell told P.TV that she “had to be very careful not to essentially glorify poverty”.
“You know, there are ‘happy servant’ tropes. So we wanted to be realistic about the fact that the downstairs life was quite difficult, but also it’s Bridgerton — you don’t want to stray too far from the fact that people are here for fantasy and for joy,” she explained.
A Whistledown who comes from that sphere would make a lot of sense. Servants hear everything and are constantly present while being socially invisible, which is basically a cheat code for intel.
Mrs Varley (Lorraine Ashbourne), the Featherington housekeeper, is the most obvious name in that lane. She’s repeatedly shown to be good at finding information and quietly sorting problems before they explode. Giving her the quill would turn Whistledown into a kind of servant’s commentary on the upper classes, so consider me sat!
There’s also a solid case for someone in the Mondrich orbit. The Mondrich family move between classes more than most, so they see both the glitter and the grind. In season four, Alice Mondrich (Emma Naomi) talks to Queen Charlotte about diversifying whose stories are heard at court, which very neatly mirrors what Whistledown does: redistribute social attention, for better or worse. An Alice‑authored column could lean harder into systemic unfairness while still serving scandal, which feels aligned with the way the show has tried to widen its lens
Could Lady Whistledown still be Penelope?
There’s also the option that this is all one big fake‑out and Penelope eventually finds a way to reclaim the Whistledown persona from a distance. She’s talked about how suffocating it became once everyone knew who she was and started blaming her both for what she wrote and what she didn’t write, especially with the queen trying to use her.
Stepping back, then quietly orchestrating things again later under a different arrangement, would absolutely solve that brand problem. That said, her surprise at the new sheet seems genuine, and the show has invested a lot in her having a clean, healthy exit: a baby, a hot husband, and a whole novel to focus on. Undoing that arc immediately would land weird.
Brownell has promised that when the reveal lands, it’ll feel earned, with “clarity of suspect” and subtle clues that were there all along. Until then, we’re in full red‑string‑on‑corkboard territory so I am off to rewatch all four seasons of Bridgerton on Netflix right now!
Lead image: Bridgerton / Netflix
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