Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams has shared that closeted professional athletes have reached out to him after seeing the queer hockey series.
The 24-year-old told Andy Cohen on an upcoming episode of SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, airing tomorrow (Jan. 8). “It’s definitely the people who reach out, somewhat anonymously, who are like, ‘I’m still a professional player still and I’m still in the closet,’” Williams said in a clip released ahead of the episode.
Williams confirmed that he’s heard from closeted hockey, football and basketball players when Cohen followed up. ”They’re reaching out to Rachel [Reid], our author, who will then relay these lovely anonymous emails. Sometimes they’re just reaching out privately, through like Instagram,” he said.
“Those ones are the ones that really just hit you and go, ‘Oh, so this is a fun show and it’s celebratory, but also sometimes it’s just hitting people right in the nerves,’” he continued.
Williams also touched on commentary that the show is helping dismantle toxic masculinity, sharing his frustrations with some of the assumptions people can make. “What’s always been something that’s frustrated me, not even with like other men, but also just there’s a lot of taboos around exploring physical intimacy with people you admire and love without people, especially in western culture, [being] like, ‘Oh, they’re fucking, they’re doing this,’” he said.
“I just was always frustrated by these kinds of notions. Especially with Connor [Storrie], who I love dearly, it was something I was always adamant that no matter what people think or want to infer, I’m always going to just physically express my love,” Williams continued. “I feel like if you’re still biased or jaded or uncomfortable with expressing physical love for people in 2025, you got to fucking, just, you know, get over yourself.”
Williams is slated to make his late-night debut tonight (Jan. 7) on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He and his co-star Connor Storrie are also making their first award show appearance this Sunday as they’ll be presenting together at the Golden Globes.
