Barcelona seafront with the W Hotel in the distance. Opening image: Rosheuvel wears Huishan Zhang Houston dress; Atelier VM Cenerentola ring; YSSO Alcyone recycled ring; Mizuki Sea of Beauty diamond and pearl ring; Completedworks pearl and zirconia gold vermeil earrings
She is birthing an entire Bridgerton prequel starting this May. Delving into Queen Charlotte’s backstory, Rosheuvel shares the titular role with India Amarteifio, who plays her younger self as she enters into an arranged marriage with King George. “You get to see how she and Lady Danbury and Violet become the women they are in Bridgerton,” she says. “We are deep diving into the emotional side of these characters and the love story of her and George. It is a little darker, which I like.” The series also broke the record for heaviest wig to date (look out for the scene at the opera).
Comparatively, getting ready for our cover shoot at The Laslett Hotel in Notting Hill was a breeze, although Rosheuvel does share the Queen’s taste in impactful clothes, favouring designs by Roksanda, Issey Miyake and Simone Rocha. Unlike her on-screen persona, she says she’s “not that much” of a gossip in real life (“although if there’s juice to be known, why not?”), but there are “several” Bridgerton WhatsApp groups that super-fans would no doubt love to be added to. “We have ‘the old bastards’, which is the older people,” she laughs again. “I think we’re on ‘Bridgey 3’ at the moment.”
Gold wears Simone Rocha puff sleeves velvet dress; Completedworks pearl and cubic zirconia gold vermeil earrings; Mizuki 14k yellow gold Sea of Beauty single row pear and diamond bangle; Nada Ghazal 18n hand-brushed yellow gold Malak round ring; Mizuki 14k yellow gold Sea of Beauty open multi diamond and Baroque pearl ring
As Rosheuvel prepares for the Queen Charlotte press tour, taking in South Africa and various US states, she talks about the other journeys that have made her who she is today
I was still at college and did a nine-month European tour of Hair, the musical, on a bus going to lots of different places. One of them was Berlin. It was a few years after the wall had come down and nothing had been built there, so we performed Hair in a tent in the middle of Potsdamer Platz – no mans’ land – which was extraordinary. I also did a bungee jump. There was one across the road from the marquee that we were performing in. It was a press thing, and some of the cast did it. I was like, “Yeah I’m game.” I’ve never been so terrified in my whole life. Never again have I ever done anything like that again.
The first trip that did something to me as an adult was when I was 35 or maybe even 40. I wanted a place to go to learn my lines, and I chose Barcelona, and it turned out to be a love story that continues to this day. I don’t think I’d ever been away on my own. I’d always been with family or friends or a partner. I got to my Airbnb, which was just a room in this guy’s house, and I made up a routine – and I still do this when I’m in Barcelona. I go to the tourist information office on my first day to ask where there’s traditional music or dancing, and that will be one of my nights out. I book a bike for the week and each day, I get up, make myself a little packed lunch, and go and have a coffee on one of the squares on the way to the beach. In the afternoon I come back, have a siesta and then go out in the evening. For me, it was a rebirth experience of adulthood and Barcelona has become this sanctuary for me. I try and go every year.
I did a lot of travelling to Wales, the Brecon Beacons, and to Scotland as a child. We didn’t have the money to go abroad, so it was always in the UK. That’s why I know some of the manor houses in Bridgerton, as I’ve been dragged around looking at them. My parents were always interested in travel and people from other communities.
Queen Charlotte holds court in Bridgerton
