Speaking during a panel at Fan Expo Boston, Evans said, “I have a daughter now,” before explaining that parenthood had altered his approach to work.

“You need a really good reason to want to go to work now,” the actor said, adding, “You know, priorities have shifted a bit.”

The remarks were shared in videos from the appearance and reported by multiple entertainment outlets.

Evans did not provide additional personal details about his daughter or discuss her publicly beyond the comments reported from the panel.

Welcoming Their First Child

Evans and Baptista welcomed their first child together on Oct. 24, 2025, in Massachusetts, according to PEOPLE.

The couple named their daughter Alma Grace Baptista Evans, PEOPLE reported, citing a source familiar with the family.

The Los Angeles Times also reported the child’s arrival and name after PEOPLE reported the birth.

At the time, a source told PEOPLE that Evans and Baptista were enjoying privacy and the early days of family life with their baby.

The couple has generally kept their relationship and family life out of the public spotlight.

Evans and Baptista were first publicly linked in January 2022 and married in September 2023.

Evans previously confirmed that the couple held wedding ceremonies on the East Coast and in Portugal during an appearance at New York Comic Con in October 2023.

Evans’s Earlier Comments About Family

The actor’s recent remarks are consistent with comments he made before becoming a parent.

In an interview with PEOPLE before his daughter’s birth, Evans said that he wanted a wife, children and a family.

“That’s absolutely something I want: wife, kids, building a family,” Evans said in that interview.

He also said that relationships, family and love could ultimately matter more to people than the work they created.

At the premiere of Red One in November 2024, Evans was asked whether he hoped to become a “superhero” father like his costar Dwayne Johnson’s character.

“Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, absolutely,” Evans replied, adding, “The title of dad is an exciting one.”

His Boston comments are the most direct public discussion of his experience as a parent since the couple welcomed their daughter.

Balancing Family and Acting

Although Evans said parenthood has made him more selective about work, he continues to have major film commitments.

He is scheduled to reprise his role as Steve Rogers in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday, which Entertainment Weekly reported is scheduled for release on Dec. 18.

Evans told Entertainment Weekly at San Diego Comic-Con that he had received at least a dozen proposals for returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe over an eight-year period before agreeing to come back.

He said the project ultimately felt right after Robert Downey Jr.’s involvement in the franchise’s next chapter, including Downey’s reported role as Doctor Doom.

Evans also said that he was not eager to return to the role for just any project, describing the characters and their place in the Marvel universe as valuable.

The comments present his professional choices as selective rather than signaling a complete departure from acting.

A Deliberately Private Family Life

Evans and Baptista have not made their daughter a regular subject of public appearances or social-media posts.

Their first public appearance together after becoming parents came at the 2026 Academy Awards, several months after Alma’s birth.

Evans presented the award for best screenplay during that ceremony, while he and Baptista attended the event together.

The couple’s limited public discussion has kept the focus on the information they have chosen to share themselves or through confirmed reports.

At Fan Expo Boston, Evans’s brief statement offered a small window into how he is approaching the change without disclosing further details about his family.

For now, his message was straightforward: becoming a father has changed the calculation behind accepting work, while leaving room for projects he considers meaningful.

“People criticize me for Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, because of their politics or their views,” Winfrey said in an interview published by the Television Academy’s emmy magazine.

“Everybody has their own path in life, and it has not one thing to do with me, and I don’t have one thing to do with them,” she added.

Winfrey said her original intention was to share information she believed could benefit viewers, rather than to shape the men’s future political identities.

“At the time, the reason and intention behind me giving them their breaks was I thought they had valuable information to share that had been meaningful to me,” Winfrey said.

How Dr. Phil Came to the Show

Winfrey described McGraw’s first major appearance on her program as a consequence of his assistance during a 1998 legal dispute involving the beef industry.

Texas cattlemen sued Winfrey for alleged defamation after she discussed beef and mad-cow disease on her talk show, and her legal team hired McGraw as a trial consultant.

Winfrey said McGraw accompanied her during the preparation for the trial and impressed her as practical, direct and approachable.

She subsequently invited him onto The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he appeared as an expert on relationships and personal problems before receiving his own syndicated program.

McGraw’s self-titled daytime show ran for more than two decades before ending in 2023, after which he launched Merit Street Media and continued appearing in political and cultural programming.

Dr. Oz’s Rise From Medical Contributor to Federal Official

Winfrey said her friend and television personality Gayle King introduced her to Oz, whose ability to explain medical subjects in accessible language appealed to her.

Oz began appearing on Winfrey’s program in 2004 and later hosted The Dr. Oz Show, which established him as a nationally recognized television medical personality.

His later career moved into electoral politics and federal administration.

Oz currently serves as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency responsible for administering major public health insurance programs.

President Donald Trump selected Oz to lead CMS, and the Senate confirmed him in April 2025 by a 53–45 vote.

Winfrey publicly supported John Fetterman, Oz’s Democratic opponent, during Pennsylvania’s 2022 Senate election.

McGraw’s Political Involvement

McGraw has also taken a more visible role in conservative political circles since his daytime television career ended.

The White House named McGraw as a member of the Religious Liberty Commission established during Trump’s administration.

The commission’s membership included religious leaders, policy advocates and public figures, including McGraw and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

McGraw also appeared at a 2024 Trump campaign rally in New York, where he criticized diversity, equity and inclusion policies and defended Trump against accusations that he was a bully.

Those public affiliations have renewed scrutiny of Winfrey’s role in introducing both men to a mass television audience.

Winfrey’s response draws a distinction between providing an early media platform and accepting responsibility for decisions made by former television colleagues years later.

The comments do not indicate that Winfrey has resumed a professional partnership with either man.

Instead, she presented their current views and activities as separate from the reasons she originally invited them onto her program: information she believed had helped her and could help her audience.

The actor made the comments in a British Vogue profile published August 13. People and LGBTQ+ outlets Them and PinkNews subsequently reported on the remarks.

“I’ve said it before but I used to go to trans clubs,” Kidman told British Vogue. “That’s where I learnt to do my hair and makeup.”

Kidman described herself at the time as “a little freckled-faced red-headed girl” who would sit down while women at the clubs styled her. “They would make me beautiful,” she said.

She said the makeovers included lashes, straightened hair, hairpieces and makeup. After leaving, she recalled feeling attractive and changed by the experience. “I would walk out of there and I would feel pretty,” she said. “I would feel like I was transformed.”

A connection to fashion, acting and performance

Kidman linked those early experiences to her later interest in fashion, makeup and hair. She also connected them with her studies in literature and her love of acting.

“And so that’s probably where it all started for me – clothes and make-up and hair – and then all of it mixed with studying literature and loving acting,” Kidman said.

The remarks present the clubs not simply as nightlife venues but as places where Kidman encountered practical beauty knowledge and performance-related expression. The published reports do not identify the clubs, the women involved or the precise dates of Kidman’s visits.

The wording in the interview refers to “trans clubs,” while subsequent coverage characterizes the people who helped Kidman as trans women. The available reports do not establish whether Kidman meant clubs organized specifically for transgender people, venues primarily attended by trans people or particular events within a broader queer nightlife scene.

The comments arrive in a broader discussion of Kidman’s style

Kidman’s account appeared in a profile that also discussed her personal life, approach to uncertainty and continuing interest in nightlife. In a separate section of the same interview, she described going to clubs and raves while wearing glasses and, sometimes, a dark wig to avoid recognition.

Kidman said her evening could involve dinner followed by a club at 1 a.m. She told the magazine that disguising herself allowed her to dance, provided she was surrounded by people she had brought with her.

That contemporary clubbing detail gives additional context to Kidman’s recollection of earlier experiences in trans clubs, although the interview does not state that the two periods were connected. The article likewise does not say that Kidman identified as transgender or that her visits represented anything other than the experiences she described.

Why the account has drawn attention

The comments were widely circulated because they attribute a foundational part of Kidman’s relationship with beauty and presentation to transgender women. Them summarized the story as Kidman going “straight to the source” to learn makeup, while PinkNews reported that she credited trans women with helping her develop beauty skills associated with her Hollywood image.

Kidman’s description centers on instruction, care and transformation rather than on a specific professional makeup artist or formal beauty course. She recalled the women performing the styling themselves and described the emotional effect of leaving the club feeling “pretty” and “transformed.”

No source reviewed for this report independently identified the individual trans women Kidman recalled or corroborated the events through their testimony. The account therefore rests on Kidman’s published recollection, reproduced by multiple outlets, rather than on independently documented details about the clubs or participants.

The interview provides no further explanation of when Kidman began visiting the clubs, how often she went or whether the women understood their interactions as mentorship. Those details remain unavailable in the reporting published by August 14.

What is clear from the interview is that Kidman remembers those encounters as formative. She placed them at the beginning of an enduring interest in hair, makeup and clothing that later became intertwined with literature and acting.

The announcement was made by Crave on Thursday, August 13, and came one week after Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie were announced as additional season-two cast members.

Hampshire will play Vanessa, Ryding will portray Luca Haas, Naylor will play Wyatt Hayes, Jalees will appear as Farah Jalali, and Priyanka will play Tarek.

The five actors will join returning stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, who play professional hockey rivals Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

Smith and Gillespie are set to play Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, respectively, characters who form the central couple in the season’s additional storyline.

The surprising past

Naylor’s casting has attracted attention because of an earlier voice-acting role that contrasts sharply with the adult hockey drama. Before joining Heated Rivalry, Naylor voiced Dora Winifred “D.W.” Read, Arthur Read’s younger sister, in the long-running animated children’s series Arthur.

PinkNews reported that Naylor voiced D.W. from 2007 to 2012. Reference listings also identify Naylor as D.W.’s voice in Arthur, including episodes from the late 2000s and early 2010s.

In Heated Rivalry, Naylor’s character is Wyatt Hayes, a starting goaltender for the Ottawa Centaurs. The Hollywood Reporter described Wyatt and Luca as Ottawa teammates of Storrie’s Ilya Rozanov and Gillespie’s Troy Barrett.

The casting connects Naylor’s childhood voice work with a series centered on adult relationships, professional sport and queer identity. Heated Rivalry follows LGBTQ+ characters navigating romance and public visibility within the world of professional hockey.

Who the new characters are

Ryding’s Luca Haas is described as a rookie player for the Ottawa Centaurs. The Swedish actor is known for playing Prince Wilhelm in Netflix’s Young Royals and appears in the film 28 Years Later.

Jalees will play Farah Jalali, an agent who represents Shane and Ilya in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series, the source material for the television adaptation. Jalees is known for work including I Used to Be Funny and Black Mirror.

Hampshire, recognized for her role as Stevie Budd in Schitt’s Creek, will portray Vanessa. Vanessa is described as a close and supportive friend of Fabian Salah, a musician whose story is part of Reid’s third Game Changers novel, Tough Guy. Priyanka will play Tarek, another friend in Fabian’s circle.

Priyanka is a Canadian drag performer and actor known for winning the first season of Canada’s Drag Race. Her casting adds another LGBTQ+ performer to a series whose audience and subject matter are closely tied to queer representation in mainstream entertainment.

Season-two story and timing

The first season was based primarily on Reid’s Heated Rivalry, the second novel in the Game Changers series, and focused on Shane and Ilya’s concealed relationship alongside their competition on the ice.

Season two will draw from The Long Game, Reid’s sixth novel, which continues Shane and Ilya’s story after they enter a committed relationship. Series creator Jacob Tierney has also said that Role Model, which takes place during the same period in the books, will provide source material for the new season.

The additions of Vanessa and Tarek indicate that Fabian and hockey player Ryan Price’s storyline may appear in the television adaptation, although casting for Fabian and Ryan had not been announced in the reports reviewed.

Production is scheduled to begin in August, with the second season targeting a spring 2027 release. Crave commissioned the series with participation from the Canada Media Fund, while HBO Max is set to continue carrying it internationally.

The season-two announcement broadens the ensemble around the returning leads and introduces characters from several books in Reid’s series. For Naylor, the role marks a move from the familiar voice of an animated child character to a live-action part in a queer hockey drama aimed at an adult audience.

The production will premiere at Riverside Studios, in west London, on September 26 and is scheduled to run through November 21, 2026.

The announcement was reported on August 13, placing the news within the past three weeks and confirming that the production is part of Riverside Studios’ Mainstage 2026–27 season.

Affluenza is written and directed by Andy Sandberg, who is also identified in coverage as the artistic director overseeing the Mainstage season.

The Play’s Story

The play is set in the Hamptons, the affluent New York coastal community, and centers on a teenager whose drunken car journey ends in devastation.

Available descriptions say the story examines privilege, family legacy, moral accountability and the American justice system.

The title refers to a controversial legal argument associated with cases in which extreme wealth or privilege has been presented as a factor in a defendant’s conduct or culpability.

Coverage of the production frames the central question around whether wealth can shield people from consequences or weaken their awareness of right and wrong.

The available reports do not identify the specific real-life cases or legal proceedings that informed Sandberg’s script.

Schnapp will play two different roles in the production, although the published announcement does not disclose their names or provide further character details.

Schnapp’s Statement

In a statement reported by Variety, Schnapp said he was “so excited” to make his stage debut in London with Affluenza.

He said he had wanted to be intentional about choosing his next project and that, while spending more time with the script, he had felt connected to the characters.

Schnapp added that playing two very different roles would allow him to approach the production from more than one perspective, and described the story as one that would leave audiences “talking and thinking.”

The statement does not indicate whether the two roles are connected to opposing sides of the play’s central conflict or whether Schnapp’s characters appear in separate periods of the story.

From Television to Theatre

Schnapp has played Will Byers in Stranger Things, the Netflix science-fiction series created by Matt and Ross Duffer.

Affluenza marks Schnapp’s first professional stage role, according to recent coverage of the casting announcement.

His previously reported screen work includes appearances in Bridge of Spies, The Peanuts Movie and Hubie Halloween.

The London engagement will therefore represent a change from Schnapp’s established screen career to a live theatrical production, where performances are delivered in real time before an audience.

The production has been described as a world premiere rather than a transfer or revival of an existing play.

Venue and Performance Schedule

Riverside Studios is located at 101 Queen Caroline Street in Hammersmith, west London.

The venue’s Mainstage is a 400-seat theatre, according to the production announcement.

The engagement is scheduled as a limited eight-week run and is the first of five plays planned for Riverside Studios’ Mainstage 2026–27 season.

Performances are listed from Monday through Saturday, generally at 7:30 p.m., with matinees scheduled on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2:30 p.m.

The announced exceptions include no performance on October 1, no November 7 matinee, an additional evening performance on October 4, and an additional matinee on November 3.

A captioned performance is scheduled for November 14 at 2:30 p.m., according to the published performance information.

The production’s press night is listed for October 5.

What Has Been Announced

The announcement confirms Sandberg as writer and director, Schnapp as the leading performer, the two-role casting arrangement, the play’s Hamptons setting and the scheduled Riverside Studios run.

Further casting details and additional information about the characters have not been included in the reports reviewed for this article.

The currently published information does not state whether Affluenza is intended to move to another venue after its Riverside Studios engagement.

For now, the confirmed London run begins September 26 and concludes November 21, making Affluenza Schnapp’s first announced professional theatre production.

One image showed Grande taking a mirror photograph while Alvarez stood behind her with his arm around her shoulder and his hand holding hers. Another image appeared to show Alvarez taking a blurry mirror selfie while Grande looked toward him.

The photographs cropped out the couple’s faces, but Grande tagged Alvarez in both images. Alvarez later reshared photographs from the carousel to his Instagram Stories.

Grande captioned the carousel with “🌱 ！ ♡,” according to reporting from ELLE. The post included photographs and video from the singer’s recent activities, including images connected to her performances and time with Alvarez.

A Relationship That Began More Than a Decade Ago

Grande and Alvarez first dated in 2015, when Alvarez was working as one of her backup dancers. The relationship ended in 2016 after approximately a year.

The pair remained friends after their breakup, according to People. Reports that they had resumed spending time together emerged in June, when they were seen together in Austin, Texas, ahead of one of Grande’s tour performances.

In July, People reported that Grande and Alvarez were taking their renewed relationship “very slowly.” The publication also reported that Grande had continued to regard Alvarez as a friend.

The renewed relationship was reported after Grande and Ethan Slater ended their relationship earlier in 2026, according to People. Grande and Slater, who worked together on Wicked, had been together for nearly three years before their breakup, the publication reported.

Public Sightings and Tour References

Grande and Alvarez were photographed together during a walk in New York City’s Central Park in July. The photographs showed them walking together while Grande handled a dog, according to Page Six, which cited images obtained by TMZ.

Alvarez was also seen attending one of Grande’s New York concerts in July. TMZ reported that he danced and sang along while Grande performed “Imperfect for You.”

Grande’s 2026 tour performances also drew attention after she altered lyrics in “Thank U, Next,” a song that references Alvarez. In one reported performance, Grande changed the lyric “Wrote some songs about Ricky / Now I listen and laugh” to “Wrote some songs about Ricky / We always find our way back.”

Those lyric changes preceded Grande’s Instagram post but did not constitute a direct public confirmation of a relationship. The Aug. 12 carousel and Alvarez’s subsequent reshares provided a more explicit social-media acknowledgment from both parties.

What the Instagram Post Shows—and Does Not Show

Grande’s post did not include a written statement describing Alvarez as her boyfriend or explaining the status of their relationship. The available images nevertheless placed Alvarez directly within a personal carousel and identified him through Grande’s tags.

Alvarez’s decision to reshare the photographs further connected his Instagram account to Grande’s public acknowledgment. Neither the photographs nor the caption provided additional information about when the couple began dating again.

The Instagram exchange followed several weeks of entertainment-media reports about the pair’s renewed closeness. The reports included public sightings, Alvarez’s appearance at Grande’s concerts and earlier Instagram interactions between the two.

For now, the clearest confirmed development is that Grande and Alvarez have each publicly shared or amplified images of themselves together on Instagram. The post marks a shift from earlier reports describing their relationship as a private or slowly developing reunion.

The singer and songwriter was speaking about the end of her relationship with music producer Justin Long when she said the relationship was her second engagement to be called off.

“This is also my second engagement that I called off,” Jackson told Cooper.

Jackson said she was uncertain whether the first relationship should formally be described as an engagement, but said it was emotionally significant to her.

“The first one, I don’t know if you could count the first one,” Jackson said. “It was real to me even though we were strung out on drugs and the ring was one that he bought with my money without me knowing.”

She did not identify the former partner or provide additional details about when the first engagement occurred.

Jackson also said that, despite the circumstances, her feelings at the time were genuine. “It was still, like, the love was so real for me in that first one,” she said.

Why Jackson Ended Her Engagement to Justin Long

Jackson described her decision to end her engagement to Long as an act of self-preservation rather than a rejection of marriage itself. Asked why she ultimately called off the relationship, she said, “It was a choice that I needed to make to be happy.”

She said it took time to reach that decision and that she had previously attempted to end the relationship.

“There were times where I did try and end it,” Jackson said during the podcast interview.

Jackson and Long publicly announced their engagement in December 2024.

The couple’s engagement ended in 2025, and Jackson confirmed the breakup publicly in July of that year.

At the time, Jackson referred to photographs of herself crying as “breakup tears.”

Jackson and Long had been romantically linked for approximately two years before announcing their engagement, according to contemporaneous reporting.

Neither Jackson nor Long has publicly disclosed a detailed account of the private circumstances that led to their separation.

Sobriety and Relationship Decisions

Jackson’s comments about her first engagement came in a broader conversation about substance use, recovery, relationships and personal judgment. The podcast episode’s description says she discussed her sobriety and the relationships that have shaped her.

Jackson has previously spoken publicly about recovering from alcohol and heroin addiction.

In January 2025, she marked five years of sobriety from alcohol and heroin in a public post.

During the Call Her Daddy interview, Jackson said she was in her seventh year of recovery, indicating that she had reached approximately six years of recovery by the time of the recording.

She said she became sober in the first week of 2020 after recognizing that she could not stop using substances on her own.

Jackson has also connected her recovery to the way she understands attachment and relationships. In the interview, she described herself as having an “addictive personality” and said she could become highly attached to consuming relationships and other sources of stimulation.

Her comments do not establish that substance use was a factor in the decision to end her engagement to Long. Jackson specifically described the first engagement as occurring while she and the unnamed former partner were using drugs, but she did not make the same claim about Long.

A More Selective Approach to Love

Jackson said her experiences have changed the standards she intends to apply in future relationships.

“I’m not willing to overlook a bunch of things,” she said.

Jackson added that she could be “a little bit pickier” and that “the bar can be raised a bit because it’s historically been very low.”

She did not announce a new engagement or identify a current romantic partner during the interview.

Jackson’s discussion placed the end of her engagements within a larger account of changing priorities. She said ending the relationship with Long was necessary for her happiness, while describing her earlier engagement as emotionally real but connected to a period when both people were using drugs.

The interview did not include the identity of Jackson’s first fiancé, a precise date for that engagement or a detailed explanation of the financial circumstances surrounding the ring.

Her account therefore adds new information about her personal history without resolving those undisclosed details.

Smith made the comments during an appearance on "The New Yorker Radio Hour" on Aug. 11, discussing how Cowan influenced the album and supported its creation. The album is scheduled for release Aug. 21 through Capitol Records.

“He’s been so beautiful and encouraging through the whole process of this record,” Smith said of Cowan, according to People’s report on the interview.

Smith also described the challenge of deciding how much of the couple’s private life to disclose through the music. “It’s been the balancing act of, ‘How much do you share?’” Smith said. “Not wanting to share too much but also it’s about him and it’s a love letter to him as a record and of this time that we’re in,” they added.

A relationship threaded through the record

The album’s title refers to Cowan’s hazel-colored eyes, according to reporting by "The New York Times" and "Billboard".

The opening track, “Everlasting Love,” has a particularly direct connection to the couple’s relationship. Smith began writing the song the night before their first date with Cowan and completed it after their relationship had developed. "Billboard" likewise reported that the song was started before the couple’s first date and finished as their relationship blossomed.

Smith told "The New York Times" that the album marked the first time they had written about “requited love.” At a sold-out San Francisco performance earlier this year, Smith characterized the project as a celebration of a queer relationship.

The framing represents a new lyrical emphasis for an artist whose best-known early material frequently centered on heartbreak. Smith said writing from a place of love and happiness initially made them apprehensive.

“I thought it would be” challenging, Smith said when asked whether writing about love was difficult. Smith recalled being afraid of falling in love when they were younger, particularly after the success of their 2014 album "In the Lonely Hour" changed their life.

“I was like, I better stay miserable,” Smith said. They said that, once they were truly in love, they did not want fear to prevent them from drawing on that experience artistically. Smith described the experience as “a very deepening and enriching thing to pull from as an artist.”

Engagement confirmation

Smith confirmed their engagement to Cowan in a July interview with "The New York Times". The newspaper reported that Smith referred to Cowan as their fiancé while discussing the relationship and the album. "Billboard" separately reported the engagement confirmation and connected it to the relationship that inspired much of "Hazel Eyes".

Smith and Cowan have been together for approximately three years, according to People’s account of Smith’s July interview. The couple were first spotted together publicly in December 2022, when they posed for a photograph with former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden at the White House. They publicly confirmed their relationship by attending the Met Gala together in May 2024, according to People.

The engagement confirmation followed reports that emerged after the pair attended this year’s Met Gala. Smith’s interview provided a direct confirmation from the singer rather than relying on earlier reports.

A different approach to making music

"Hazel Eyes" is also notable for the way it was made. Smith told "The New York Times" that the album was their first record made fully on their own terms, outside the conventional structures of the music industry.

Rather than working within a system built around large teams of songwriters, polished studios and repeated A&R feedback, Smith worked with a smaller group of collaborators. Those collaborators included the indie singer-songwriter Feist, and the project includes a full gospel choir and what the newspaper described as a more handcrafted sound.

"Billboard" reported that Smith viewed the creative process as more personal and freeing than the traditional pop songwriting system. The publication also reported that the album’s songs explore lasting love, heartbreak and healing rather than presenting happiness as a single, uncomplicated emotional state.

The record follows "Gloria", released in 2023, as well as Smith’s earlier albums "Love Goes", "The Thrill of It All" and "In the Lonely Hour". "Gloria" included “Unholy,” Smith’s collaboration with Kim Petras, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022.

Smith has also spoken about the significance of making openly queer love songs while LGBTQ+ rights face political and social challenges. “For me, there’s something radical about being queer in this time, in this world and singing love songs,” Smith told "The New York Times".

“I’m not going to allow the poison that I read and that I see to affect my way of loving,” Smith said.

With "Hazel Eyes, Smith is presenting a project rooted in mutual love, a relationship milestone and a more independent creative process. The album is due Aug. 21.

Walsh made the comments in a personalized video recorded for a fan through Cameo, a platform that allows users to request messages from actors and other public figures. In the video, Walsh said he was preparing to return to Canada to film additional episodes of Heated Rivalry.

“Getting ready to go back up to Canada and shoot some more episodes… so, I think we’re doing 12 this time,” Walsh said in the clip.

The video was subsequently shared on X and circulated among fans of the series.

Walsh later paused his Cameo account. A message displayed on his profile said, “Stepping away because a video went viral that got me in trouble.”

His account reportedly indicated that personalized videos would be unavailable until August 2027.

What the 12-episode comment means

Walsh’s remark appears to have raised questions about the scale and structure of the next phase of Heated Rivalry, but the comment does not establish how the reported 12 episodes would be distributed.

The available reports do not provide official confirmation that 12 episodes have been ordered for a single season, or that two seasons are being filmed together.

Deadline reported that Walsh’s wording led fans to speculate that the second and third seasons could be filmed together, following the first season’s six-episode run.

That interpretation remains unconfirmed. The actor said only that he believed the production was making “12” episodes, and he did not explain whether the number referred to a season order, a combined production schedule or another arrangement.

Neither the reports from Variety, Entertainment Weekly nor Deadline cited a public statement from Crave, HBO Max or the series’ producers confirming Walsh’s episode-count comment.

Season two production

Heated Rivalry is based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series and follows the relationship between professional hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, respectively.

Williams and Storrie are expected to return for the second season.

Production on the second season was scheduled to begin in August 2026, according to comments by creator Jacob Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady during a February appearance on CBS Mornings.

Deadline reported earlier this month that filming was expected to take place in and around Toronto during the summer and fall.

The production has also asked fans who encounter filming locations to give cast and crew space while they work.

The series is targeting a spring 2027 return, although an exact release date has not been confirmed by the available sources.

New cast members

Crave announced in August that Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie had joined the second season. Smith will play Harris Drover, while Gillespie will portray Troy Barrett.

The two actors are joining Williams and Storrie, whose characters are at the center of the first season’s story.

The new additions have increased attention around the show’s continuation, particularly as production began and fans sought information about which stories from Reid’s novels might be adapted.

However, the reports about Walsh’s Cameo video do not establish specific plot details for the upcoming episodes.

They also do not confirm that Walsh’s character, David Hollander, will appear in all of the episodes referenced in the video.

A limited disclosure, not an official announcement

The apparent leak is notable because Walsh’s statement offered a production detail at a moment when the series’ second season is entering active filming.

At the same time, the available evidence supports only a narrow conclusion: Walsh recorded a Cameo video in which he mentioned returning to Canada and referred to “12” episodes, the clip spread online, and he subsequently said that the viral video had caused trouble.

There is no verified public explanation in the cited reports identifying what specific consequence Walsh faced or whether the production formally reprimanded him.

Representatives for Walsh and the producers of Heated Rivalry had not publicly commented on the apparent disclosure in the reports published Thursday.

For now, the episode count and any possible relationship between the second season and a future third season remain unconfirmed.