For months now, Richard Madden has been getting pap’d in LA and New York. He’s a good looking guy, he’s famous because of Game of Thrones and Bodyguard, and he won a Golden Globe this year. All of those are good reasons for “why Richard gets pap’d a lot.” But another reason is that for months now, Madden has been seen around with a young guy named Brandon Flynn. Flynn is best known to the casual gossiper as “Sam Smith’s ex-boyfriend.” Brandon and Richard have seemed inseparable for months, and there were even photos of Richard with his arm around Brandon, and his hand holding on to the back of Brandon’s neck. It was hot. Considering that Madden has had a few actress girlfriends before now, people were abuzz with the idea that Richard could be bisexual and “pulling a Kristen Stewart,” which is basically just announcing your sexuality by not hiding your relationships from the paps.

Anyway, Madden was interviewed by the New York Times to promote Rocketman, where he plays John Reid, Elton John’s first manager and lover. In the NYT piece, this happened:

Tabloid interest in his personal life has increased, too: Madden, who was in a relationship with the actress Jenna Coleman until last year, has recently been photographed several times with the actor Brandon Flynn, who used to date the singer Sam Smith. Are the two men an item?

Madden shrugged, unbothered by the question but in no hurry to answer it, either. “I just keep my personal life personal,” he said. “I’ve never talked about my relationships.” He’s working on a way to deter paparazzi interest in who he’s seen with: “I wear the same clothes days in a row, because if it looks like the same day, they can’t run the pictures,” he said. “There’s only so many photos you can have of me with a green juice walking down the street.”

He knows, though, that some actors court that kind of attention. “I’ll be at hotels and restaurants where they’ll tell you, ‘There’s paparazzi in the front, do you want to go out the front or go out the back?’” Madden said. “And you go, ‘Who wants to out the front?’ And they say, ‘Oh, quite a lot of people!’”

[From The NY Times]

“I’ve never talked about my relationships.” A-HA! So he admits he’s in a relationship with Brandon Flynn? Seriously, I have no idea. There’s speculation that the LGBTQ community wants to claim Richard but I think there are some people who worry that Madden is merely “baiting” people to help sell his movie. I don’t know… I’ve seen a lot of those pap stroll photos of Madden and Flynn, and I think they’re happening.

Richard Madden is responding to the speculation that he's dating Brandon Flynn https://t.co/f3Jl5lX3WY

— JustJared.com (@JustJared) June 1, 2019

Photos courtesy of WENN.