Heated Rivalry lads drop scathing joint statement after relationship rumours, racism, and hate

The Heated Rivalry cast, including Hudson Williams and François Arnaud, has released a joint statement condemning the pattern of homophobia, bigotry, and racism surrounding the show.

In a tale as old as time, love turned into obsession, which turned into rampant bigotry, for a certain subgroup of the Heated Rivalry fandom. Now, months after the show finished airing, Twitter is chock full of people wielding their parasocial relationships like Connor Storrie is popping round for dinner. He’s not.

From critics of the alleged relationship between Connor and François, to overt racism targeting Hudson, what was a cracking win for queer folks is turning more insufferable for a minute.

The cast has had enough.

Hudson Williams and François Arnaud condemned the hate

The unbridled hate and bigotry, ironically, from people who claim to love the show, has been left relatively unchecked until now.

In a joint statement posted to their Instagrams, Hudson Williams and François Arnaud wrote: “Don’t call yourself a fan if you share racist/homophobic/biphobic/misogynist/ageist/ableist/parasocial/bigoted comments of any kind. None of us need your hateful ‘love.’

“We all respect and support and love each other and are on the same side. If you can’t accept that gtfoh.”

Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams and François Arnaud share statement condemning hate comments:

“Don't call yourself a fan if you share racist/ homophobic/biphobic/misogynistic/ageist/ ableist/parasocial/bigoted comments of any kind
None of us need your hateful “love”
We all… pic.twitter.com/7u4ngW3ijk

— Pop Base (@PopBase) March 9, 2026

Most Read

You can now watch Jeffrey Epstein’s disturbing private videos on ‘JeffTube’ – here’s how

The wages the Love Is Blind season 10 cast made in jobs before the show reveal biggest earners

Bridgerton rich list: The girls ranked by how much money was in their eye-watering dowries

The scathing post was reshared by the creator of Heated Rivalry, Jacob Tierney, Heated Rivalry book author Rachel Reid and Svetlana actress Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova. On his own story, Harrison Browne also called out the transphobia he’d experienced after getting cast.

hudson williams himself is telling you. françois is telling you. pic.twitter.com/36Nwlev5Qc

— mimi 🥐☀️ (@softcois) March 9, 2026

After even more abuse, this time aimed at Connor and François for staying silent on the racism, Hudson added on Threads: “It was Francois’ idea and I helped write it! I don’t scroll comments so I did not see the hate. I was vibing watching figure skating highlights.”

When someone called François out for the same thing in the comments, he also responded: “@XXXX I did draft this message and @hudsonwilliamsofficial, and I tweaked it together and wanted to make a joint statement. We thank you for your concern.”

We’ve come to expect hate from straight people on queer projects, but that’s not the case this time. This is people who claimed to have loved the show.

Do better, or if not, in François’ own words: “Gtfo.”

For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.

Featured image credit: Todd Williamson/Shutterstock for The Actor Awards