It’s 13 October 2025. A regular Monday. But for fans of Dan and Phil – the Phandom – it’s to be marked down in history.
A 46-minute video hits the internet, and the comments begin to flood in before the pair have even spoken. Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship? The Truth was not just an announcement that they’ve been together for the past almost 16 years, it was a reminder that for LGBTQIA++ people, coming out isn’t something that ends.
This isn’t the first time Dan and Phil have come out. In 2019, Dan emerged from a much-needed mental health break to admit in a 45-minute piece that he was gay, having only come out to his family earlier that month. When Phil came out just a few weeks later, rumours began to snowball.
Dan and Phil seem almost nervous in the new video. There’s Dan’s usual cynicism, Phil’s habit of unconscious innuendos, but also an air of anxiety. They’re sitting on a set that’s a mesh of their early beds, back when they first started filming YouTube videos; Dan’s half has black sheets, and Phil’s has green.
This nervousness makes sense as they detail how a small minority of fans Just Like Us ambassador Teddy Ramplin explores how Dan and Phil’s relationship reveal reignited vital conversations about privacy, visibility and the never-ending journey of coming out.have shown a vehement disregard for their privacy, often with the goal of finding out if they were in a relationship. From doxxing them and trying to contact their families, to filming the pair between shelves in supermarkets, “as if the kind of honey-roasted nut they buy” would give a clue to the nature of their relationship.
Some may say they “owed their fans the truth”, but I disagree. Even when you’ve been in the public eye for close to 16 years, everybody has a right to privacy. Dan and Phil don’t “owe” their fans anything. Public figures or not, we all have similar fears around coming out. The pair detailed their worries about the impact on their careers, the vulnerability of letting people into something so personal and being “put in a box”, and homophobic backlash. Dan revealed that he had an “extremely homophobic childhood”, and recounts a recent revelation from his therapist: “Dan, you love being in the closet”.
Dan explains that for many years they felt they had to “address it or suppress it”, but in a community as rich and diverse as theirs, six-and-a-half years after coming out, they felt that now was the right time. Phandora’s box is finally open.
Phil goes on to call the video “another mini coming out”, and it’s a statement that holds true for almost anyone LGBTQIA+. We know all too well that the march towards the closet door begins with a single step, and the “cycle of never-ending closets” hits home for a lot of us, because there’s always more to overcome. Coming out is by no means the end of a person’s story.
Their candour in lifting the lid on their relationship unearths so many more opportunities for backlash and hate, which is what makes their transparency so admirable and, for many, a true inspiration.
Having a positive role model of a queer relationship to look up to makes young LGBTQIA+ people feel less alone, and helps them see what their own future might look like. Just Like Us’ research has shown that 3 in 5 (60%) LGBTQIA+ young people had no LGBTQIA+ role models when they were growing up. The impact of their relationship reveal goes far beyond personal bravery, it gives young people hope.
So, after putting their feelings out in the open for millions to see, there’s only one thing left to do: flip the bed, lift the shutters, and usher in a new era of Dan and Phil: “fully out and proud and unleashed”, and as Phil so eloquently puts it, “unhinged”. But that’s not a surprise, and we welcome it with open arms.
Teddy is an ambassador for Just Like Us, the LGBTQIA+ young people’s charity. 18 to 25 and LGBTQIA+? Sign up now to hear about their next training event!
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