Dear reader, the time has finally arrived, Bridgerton is at last back on our Netflix screens for season four, putting Benedict Bridgerton front and centre as his romance with maid Sophie Baek unfolds. And while it's been a delight to be reunited with the majority of the Bridgerton family, two key members are missing - where are Kate and Anthony?
Season four kicks off with Benedict back to his rakish ways and ignoring all responsibilities, much to the disapproval of his mother Lady Bridgerton. However, is that all about to change when he meets a mysterious woman in a silver dress at a masked ball?
Well, while he struggles with this new found romance, it would be great to have his older brother Anthony's support and yet he is seemingly missing from the first four episodes. So why are Kate and Anthony not in the first part of the season? Here's what we know.
Where are Kate and Anthony in Bridgerton season 4?
The first four episodes of Bridgerton season four dropped on Netflix earlier today and while most of the Bridgerton family were present, Kate and Anthony were missing.
The couple's love story was the focus of season two and then the pair appeared sporadically throughout season three, making appearances in three episodes. But in the first four episodes of season four they are yet to be seen.
If you cast your in mind back to season three, Kate expressed an interest in returning to India and showing her home to Anthony.
Then in the opening scenes of the new season there is a blink and you'll miss it moment, where one of the members of staff mentions that the couple are still in India and Kate has given birth to the couple's first child. So cute! We then don't hear much of them throughout the next four episodes.
So will they be returning? Thankfully yes! During the trailer for part two we see a quick shot of the couple lying on a bed with their child. According to IMDb, the pair are both appearing in the final episode of the season so we will get to see them once.
And Simone Ashley, who plays Kate in the show confirmed the couple would appear in season four and opened up about filming the new series while chatting to Brit + Co last year.
Speaking to the publication, she said: "I can't tease anything, but I can say I was filming a couple of weeks ago, with the girls. I'm super excited to be back on the show. I'm so grateful for everything that that show has given me, and whenever I go back it, it just feels like home."
Bridgerton's show runner Jess Brownell has previously opened up about the couple's reduced role, explaining they are not written out of the show for good, and their trip to India was a plot device.
""I think the strength of sending them off to India for a little while is that it does leave the door open for them to come back, schedules allowing," she told Teen Vogue back in 2024. "I think, understandably, when any of our lead actors have given over their lives for their season, in future seasons, we want to be supportive of the fact that they do have other projects coming in, and to ask actors to come back just to be in the background is not really fair to them."
It's not uncommon for the leads of each season of Bridgerton to go onto have a reduced role in the future seasons. We now no longer see Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page, as Daphne Bridgerton and The Duke, with Page departing the show after season one, and Dynevor after season two.
But here's hoping we get to see more of Kate and Anthony in season five.
Bridgerton season 4 part 1 is out on Netflix now
