“Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship? Yes.” After 16 years of collaboration across Youtube channels, the OG Youtubers have confirmed what many have been speculating about for years: they’ve been together the whole time. 

Daniel Howell (previously danisnotonfire, currently Dan Howell) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) are two of Youtube’s inaugural creators. They had both been creating vlog-style content on the platform since 2006, before moving to frequent collaborations upon meeting in 2009. They began with a series of vlogs cleverly called “phil is not on fire,” which set the tone of early YouTube as poorly edited but ultimately endearing vlogs. From then on they moved on to broader collaborations and eventually moved in together in a house they co-own. Eventually, their joint channel “DanAndPhilGAMES” was born, during the peak of YouTube gaming channels. Here they played any number of games across various genres and continuously collaborated. Through every major era of YouTube, Dan and Phil were active participants. While they retained their individual channels, Dan and Phil became one entity. Through tours, a book, a break, radio shows and countless other combined efforts, it has always been Dan and Phil.

Since the beginning of their collaboration, there have been dating rumors, with the couple being referred to as “Phan,” not to be confused with their fans, the “phans.” Dan and Phil started out around the dawn of Youtube and grew into adulthood with the platform. Their fandom—The Phandom—grew with them. Given their easily accessible and mostly child-appropriate content until recently—especially on Phil’s part—their fandom skews fairly young. These young people did not know how to engage with the internet or fandom, no one did. As such, many boundaries were crossed. Phans showed their love in various, and increasingly concerning, ways. There were harmless edits, detailed fan fictions and some particularly obsessive fans found out where the duo lived. Throughout the course of their careers, the duo has been doxxed, stalked and taken advantage of. The whole thing got very parasocial very quickly. People felt as though they knew Dan and Phil personally. 

When they uploaded their video “Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship? The Truth” on Oct. 13, a prevailing sentiment is “we already knew.” As Dan and Phil address in their video, no, we didn’t.

Back in June of 2019, when Dan and Phil came out separately—Dan with a 40 minute art piece and Phil with an 8 minute quippy video—these same sentiments of “knowing” bubbled up, because two gay men couldn’t possibly be friends. Suddenly years of fan edits made by 13-year-olds were taken as gospel. The obsession with every touch, every glance was emboldened. 

Admittedly, two gay men who own a house together, have kept the entirety of their relationships private and have stayed by each others’ side for 16 years does seem like an open secret, but that is not the point. Dan and Phil make content off of themselves, and they asked to keep this one part private. Even now in admitting they are together, they ask that a level of privacy be maintained, as is their right. 

In a deep and thoughtful 47 minute video, Dan and Phil answered a series of questions about their relationship, history and future. Helpfully, they lay out an agenda for the viewer. “What is the conspiracy? Why we never talked about it? Why we are talking about it now? What is the truth?” In short, the conspiracy is that they’re dating, they didn’t talk about it due to personal issues, they feel more comfortable now, and the truth is that they’ve been together the whole time. The duo, Dan specifically, cited the second coming out as an exercise in being more open and freely themselves. Dan has previously discussed his history with homophobia and struggles to be out both in regards to his relationship with Phil and his personal identity back in 2019. After work with his therapist, Dan has reportedly reached a point where coming out publicly was an option. Having reached a level of success and stability in life, now felt like the time to hard launch. Just as Dan and Phil have been a part of and fueled every major trend on YouTube, the long awaited Dan and Phil podcast “Hard Launch” began this week. Dan and Phil are pervasive, but a comfortable mainstay and will remain that way.

Though this did break a certain side of the internet, it is important to remember to ease off. It is exciting that Dan and Phil announced they are together, it’s flashy and attention grabbing, but it is not life-altering. After 16 years of being on the internet with an often overzealous fanbase, Dan and Phil have shown some more vulnerability. Under the generational comedy duo are real, private people. There hasn’t really been a YouTube without Dan and Phil, and it would be sad to see that reality. They gave up a piece of their lives to the internet, do not demand more.