YouTubers Dan and Phil confirm they’ve been dating for 16 years: ‘I felt we had to hide’

YouTube and comedy duo Dan Howell and Phil Lester have confirmed that they’ve been in a relationship for the past 16 years.

The pair, who came out as gay separately in 2019, published a video on their YouTube channel on Monday (13 October) evening. Titled “Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship?” the 46-minute video features them talking about their relationship and their reasons for keeping it out of the public eye for so long.

Having met in 2009, Howell and Lester moved in together in 2011, often appearing in each other’s content as well as creating together. In 2014, they launched their joint YouTube channel, Dan and Phil Games, which tailed off four years later.

“All right, let’s get this over with. Are Dan and Phil in a relationship?” Howell asked in the opening seconds of the video, to which Lester answered a firm: “Yes.”

The pair, considered among raw OG content creators on the platform, then dived into “one of the biggest conspiracies in the history of the internet,” saying people should “mind their God damn business.” But part of the reason they were opening up now was the scale of speculation about them.

Howell said they “fell into it hard and fast in 2009… so fast that we never labelled, we just ended up living together and here we are”.

He also revealed that he had been so “deep in the closet” in his mid-twenties that he hid “who I was to my friends, family, myself”, so little wonder he never talked about his relationship. He was afraid of people’s reactions if he was open about himself.

His “homophobic” childhood definitely contributed to his anxiety about being more open, and in 2021, he told GQ that he’d been brought up in a “very toxic, masculine environment”.

Lester and Howell also recognised that the nature of their work, inviting people to into their daily lives, came with unintended consequences such as a lack of privacy. They also talked about wanting to be known as a comedy duo, not a couple.

“If it’s Dan and Phil the boyfriends introduced on the radio,” Lester said, before Howell added: “It sounds like: ‘Oh, that’s their gimmick’.”

Lester then went on to say: “Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of homophobia out there.”

Fans took to the comments to share their reactions to the video, with one saying: “Locals are describing it as a category five Tumblr event.” Someone else proclaimed: “This is like gay independence day.”

Others wrote: “This legit feels like the final chapter of the internet, like there’s nothing left now,” and “[a] huge day for people who were strange and anxious in middle school”.

At the end of the video, Lester said: “We’re leaving the past behind,” before the pair teased an “unhinged” and “unleashed” joint YouTube account featuring gaming, baking and being “daft b*tches.”

Lester also confirmed they were “caving into pressure” and starting a podcast.

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