YouTube duo Dan and Phil have revealed the sheer relief they felt after telling fans about their 16-year hidden relationship.
The internet stars – Dan Howell and Phil Lester – revealed the news in a lengthy YouTube video last week, with millions of fans around the globe celebrating the news.
In the announcement that already has three million views, Dan, 34, shared they ‘fell hard and fast’ shortly after meeting in 2009 and have been together ever since.
The nature of their relationship has been under intense scrutiny from certain parts of the internet for years, and they also opened up about the immense pressure that was put on them as a result.
‘A big reason why I’ve been like I never wanna talk about this is I wouldn’t handle people’s reactions,’ Dan explained while Phil, 38, agreed: ‘I knew this was all very sensitive, uncomfortable, and scary for you. So I kind of just wanted to give you time to figure out what you wanted to do.’
Now, after confirming their relationship, the pair have started a new podcast called Hard Launch. In the first episode, which came out on Monday, they opened up about how they have felt about the huge reaction.
‘Can I say posting that video felt like a huge relief? I just felt like a weight had been lifted. I was worried I was gonna post it, or we were gonna post it and be like, “Oh, no. We’ve made a huge mistake.”,’ Dan admitted to his partner Phil.
‘No putting this back in the can,’ Phil then added.
Speaking about what contributed to the push to talk about their relationship publicly, Dan said his therapist had told him he needed to ‘stop being scared and just rip the plaster off.’
Given the millions of followers they have gained over the years, the news came with plenty of reaction from fans, including plenty of memes, which the couple appreciated.
‘Obviously, people have processed the news that Dan and Phil have had launched in different ways personally, and very few of them were sincere because the memes were too good.
‘Actually, I feel like if people were saying beautiful, articulate things, it just got buried under hilarity,’ Dan joked.
Dan Howell and Phil Lester’s relationship timeline
- 2009: Dan and Phil met in October and instantly hit it off, beginning their working and secret romantic relationship.
- 2011: Dan and Phil moved in together, relocating to London a year later.
- 2014: Dan and Phil launch their joint YouTube channel DanAndPhilGAMES
- 2018: After their Interactive Introverts tour, they pursued separate projects. Dan released his book You Will Get Through This Night and went on a solo comedy tour, We’re All Doomed, in 2022. Meanwhile, Phil grew his solo channel AmazingPhil.
- 2019: Dan and Phil both come out as gay weeks apart
- 2024: The pair reunited with their third tour Terrible Influence, which wrapped in 2025. They also rebotted their gaming channel, which went on hiatus in 2018.
- October 2025: Dan and Phil release a podcast together – Hard Launch
Both of them came out as gay in separate videos in 2019, but didn’t speak about their romance with one another at the time.
Explaining their decision to not say anything back then, Dan said in the video titled – Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship: The Truth – he ‘felt we had to hide the relationship because I was still hiding who I was to my friends, family, myself.’
The pair emphasised that they wanted their content to remain about making people laugh and not solely about their romance.
‘Being funny, entertaining. Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of homophobia out there,’ Phil explained.
Hard Launch with Dan and Phil will release episodes every Monday.
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