Nicola Coughlan, star of Bridgerton, took to Instagram to show off her new slimmed-down look. The 35-year-old Irish actress, who played Penelope Featherington in the hit period drama, posted a photo of herself during an early morning workout. She looked stunning in a black Nike bralette that showed off her stomach and Adidas leggings that hugged her toned legs.

The Derry Girls star joked that she deserved a medal for her early morning workouts, captioning the black-and-white photo, “If I ever get up to exercise before work I do feel like I deserve a special medal and that is just the truth.” The story post comes after Nicola answered questions about the upcoming third season of Bridgerton last week and gave a glimpse of Lady Whistledown’s debut column. She revealed some of her character’s mysteries and gave fans a taste of what’s to come in the new season.

The second season of Bridgerton ended with Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) in love with Kate (Simon Ashley). His sister Eloise’s (Claudia Jessie) story was much more dramatic, though. She discovered that her best friend Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is the one behind the sleazy Lady Whistledown gossip paper. 

And her hidden relationship with printer assistant Theo (Calam Lynch) was also crushed. We won’t see Eloise discover love until the fifth season, which is based on Julia Quinn’s novels. Even though we know she’ll eventually find love, it’s still a heartbreaking punch.

After watching the main characters in both seasons of Bridgerton unravels themselves flawlessly, fans have high expectations from the third season. The craze is still high among the fans since the last season and fans are hoping the third season will be the best yet. After giving us the steamiest enemies-to-lovers tropes to binge-watch, fans are on the edge of their seats for the upcoming season.

Meanwhile, things haven’t been easy for Penelope Featherington! She’s been hiding her identity for the last two seasons and it seems she intends to keep doing so. What will happen to Penelope Featherington this season? The show has left us hanging with a heck of cliffhangers from the last episode!