Heated Rivalry boss shuts down speculation around Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams' sexualities

2 December 2025, 18:52

By Sam Prance

Jacob Tierney has the perfect response to people asking if Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are gay.

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Heated Rivalry showrunner Jacob Tierney has addressed demand for Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie to discuss their sexualities. His comments come following speculation around whether or not the actors are queer in real life.

Heated Rivalry is quickly becoming everyone's favourite new erotic gay romance drama. Based on the hit Rachel Reid book of the same name, the show follows two rival ice hockey players who have a secret gay relationship and people are living for how well actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie bring Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov to life.

In recent years, there's been an ongoing conversation around whether queer characters should be played by queer characters. Now, Heated Rivalry showrunner Jacob Tierney has entered the chat, and revealed if Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie's sexualities played a role in how he cast them as lovers Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

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In a new interview with Xtra, Connor and Hudson were asked about queer characters playing queer roles and whether they feel any need to talk about their personal lives in relation to Heated Rivalry. Connor and Hudson both play queer characters in Heated Rivarly but neither of them have discussed their sexualities and/or dating histories publicly.

Jacob then intercepted by saying: "I'll answer this for them. I don’t think there’s any reason to get into that stuff. I’ll tell you something about the casting of both of these roles. You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law. So what you have to gauge is somebody’s enthusiasm to do the work."

Heated Rivalry is filmed in Canada where it's illegal for employers to question prospective employees about their sexualities.

Jacob Tierney has the perfect response to people asking if Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are gay. Picture: Crave

Jacob continued: "And that’s what’s so impressive about both of these guys is they came into this being like, “Yeah, we’re here to do this, and we are here to make this story feel authentic and to be as real as possible." He ended by saying: "And they f---ing hit it out of the park."

Neither Connor nor Hudson expanded the question. As mentioned above, both actors have chosen to keep their personal lives private.