Sterling K. Brown had a surprisingly NSFW reaction to his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathé, finally meeting Heated Rivalry‘s Connor Storrie.
“This happened and I just want everyone to know that I didn’t fall. I didn’t collapse. I gushed,” Bathé, 49, said in an Instagram video posted on Wednesday, March 4. “I gushed all over him.”
She continued: “Look at him! Isn’t he the best? He was so cool.”
Brown, 49, took to the comments section with a colorful response, writing, “You ‘gushed … all over him?’”
Bathé is one of many celebrity fans of HBO’s overnight hit. Based on Rachel Reid‘s Game Changers book series, Heated Rivalry follows rival professional hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), whose animosity on the ice is just a front for a secret — and very passionate — romance.
While fans wait for another season of Heated Rivalry, Bathé and Brown are both currently starring on Hulu’s hit series Paradise. Brown teamed up with creator Dan Fogelman on the science fiction series, which marks their first collaboration since This Is Us.
Paradise, which premiered in January 2025, initially appeared to be set in a serene and wealthy community forced to face the realities of a shocking murder. In typical Fogelman fashion, the political thriller introduced a twist when Paradise was revealed to be an underground bunker housing the world’s most prominent individuals after an apocalyptic event destroyed the rest of humanity.
Brown stars as Xavier while Bathé is set to appear later in the second season — and is hosting the show’s companion podcast.
“Initially, I was a little bit lukewarm about doing the podcast because I was like, ‘There’s no way [they can top season 1],’” Bathé exclusively told Us Weekly last month. “Dan is a genius. He’s got great writers but I thought that it’s not going to be as good as season 1.”
Bathé was happy to be proven wrong. “How do you top perfection? You can’t match perfection. So I was going to try it but I was [preparing] for a sophomore slump. I was wrong. Not only was I wrong — but I was so very wrong.”
She continued: “It’s incredible. I don’t know how they create a perfect season of television in season one and then take it apart and take the pieces and put them back together in an even more — or just as interesting — way. I kept asking that question and they’re all so humble.”
Bathé’s love for the show allowed her to get all our burning questions answered, saying, “I truly love the show and I hope that the way I like to watch the show and the questions that I ask match up with the rest of the fandom. I’m a true fan — but I just hope that I make the fandom proud.”
Paradise premieres February 23 on Hulu with new episodes of the show — and the companion podcast — airing every Monday.
