Dan & Phil Share Major Update After Confirming Secret Relationship
No, this isn’t clickbait. Dan Howell and Phil Lester genuinely confirmed their relationship status. And Phans, it’s official: Dan and Phil have been dating since Day 1! Now they’re taking fans (or Phans) inside their relationship with their new podcast, Hard Launch.
On October 13, 2025, Dan and Phil took to their collaborative YouTube channel, Dan and Phil (formerly DanAndPhilGAMES), ready to finally reveal the answer to a question they know is “one of the biggest conspiracies in the history of the internet,” as they put it: “Is Phan real?”
As OG YouTube watchers know, Dan and Phil’s relationship has always been a bit of a mystery. While they have lived together for over a decade and have both openly come out as gay, fans have always suspected that they may be more than platonic besties, but assumed that the notoriously private lads would never officially define their relationship.
During their 46-minute video, titled “Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship,” they specifically noted that there was a collection of overly invested fans who felt entitled to full access to their personal lives, developing parasocial relationships with them. While they made it clear that the majority of their fans were “normies” or “respectful shippers.” As they put it, “Being a fan of Dan and Phil was just as much about their funny content as the secret mirror world of content that was solving the ultimate reality game of their relationship.”
Scroll to find out everything we know about Dan and Phil’s relationship, why they haven’t shared their relationship status until now, and more.
Dan and Phil / YouTube
Who are Dan Howell and Phil Lester?
Dan Howell and Phil Lester are British YouTubers who have been creating content together since they filmed “Phil Is Not on Fire” in 2009, combining the names of their accounts at the time DanIsNotOnFire and AmazingPhil. At the time, Dan was a big fan of Phil’s YouTube content, declaring himself “Phil Trash #1.”
As Dan and Phil moved in together in 2012, fans have speculated for years that the duo were more than best friends, a theory that rapidly became one of YouTube’s most talked about conspiracies. While both Dan and Phil came out in YouTube videos back in 2019, they had not confirmed their status as a couple until now.
Are Dan and Phil together?
Yes, Dan and Phil have officially announced that they are in a romantic relationship, having dated since they met in 2009; however, they are not married. Dan confirmed, “We fell into it hard and fast in 2009, and here we are, almost 16 years later.” According to Dan, they’ve never actually said that they are boyfriends because it all happened so fast. Dan told viewers, “We are just more compatible with each other than anyone we will ever meet.”
Naturally, this news almost broke the internet as their followers and just about anyone who’s been on YouTube during the last decade reacted to the news. Resoundingly, their comments have been flooded with the same level of love and support that they have shown their followers since they began creating content. As one commenter said, “Listen. Not our business. Never been our business… But after all these years, I’m both very, very happy for you and feeling a bizarre sense of relief.”
Dan and Phil / YouTube
When does Dan and Phil’s new podcast premiere?
The first episode of Dan and Phil’s new podcast, Hard Launch, is set to premiere on Monday, October 20, continuing their “unfiltered oversharing era” with new episodes every Monday after that. In regard to their podcast, the duo shared, “After our hard launch, we feel dangerously free, and the people have demanded more. This podcast is an unfiltered and unafraid new era of oversharing that we may regret, but can never take back. At a time where queer voices are being sidelined and things feel dark – we’re here to be loud, help people express themselves, and laugh through life. Come and join us, you won’t want to miss out!”
Why did Dan and Phil decide to announce their relationship status now?
According to Dan, they did not previously announce their relationship status because he does not like to be “put in a box.” He explained, “If anything happened in our private life, if we ever decided we didn’t want to speak to each other… We would destroy our own careers.”
As Phil put it, announcing that they are together is “a big scary deal for us. It’s kind of like another coming out.” However, hiding this major secret had gotten to the point that it was impacting both their social lives and their career. “It’s not convenient trying to have a career as an entertainer and being like ‘I will do no interviews.'”
Beyond that, the YouTubers addressed the unignorable comments from fans alleging that they were an item. Phil shared, “It was kind of disheartening when you put so much effort into a video and then all of the comments are like, ‘Oh my God, they touched.'” While this was not the whole “Phandom,” some shippers took the theories too far, becoming “too loud to ignore.” Understandably, this led them to choose to “suppress it” instead of deciding to “address it.”
if you’ve ever been into dan and phil you might want to be online in an hour or so
— Phil Lester (@AmazingPhil) October 13, 2025
While they have proudly hard-launched their decade and a half long relationship, the YouTubers continue to ask their fans not to dig into any of the information that they haven’t shared. As they enter a new era, with their joint YouTube channel and a brand new podcast, Hard Launch, ready to share never-before-heard stories from their lives together, they teased, “You’ve f**led around, and now you’re going to find out.”
Dan and Phil’s Hard Launch, Mondays, Listen Anywhere You Stream Podcasts
