Erin Doherty Opens Up About Life With Her GF After Critics Choice Awards Win
After taking home Best Supporting Actress award, Erin Doherty got candid about vulnerability, lesbian stereotypes, and moving in with her girlfriend.
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2026 is already shaping up to be iconic for Adolescence star Erin Doherty—not just on the awards front, where she took home Best Supporting Actress at the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards, but in her personal life too. She shared some very real details about her queer relationship on a new episode of the Fearne Cotton Happy Place podcast, released Monday.
The 33-year-old actress opened up about moving in with her girlfriend, Sinead Donnelly, an NHS radiographer, and joked that the pair have now become what some might call “cliche lesbians.”
“I’m such a romantic. I hate saying goodbye at the end of every day. I hated it. I’m so bad,” Doherty said. “People say it’s like a cliche lesbian thing, where you immediately move in, so we held on as long as we could. But I was like, I really think I should move in now. I tried to make it as non-cliche as possible, but I just love her. So at the start of [last] year, I moved in with her, and it’s been the craziest year of my life.”
Moving in together quickly (ahh, the classic lesbian U-Hauling) is something many queer folks know all too well. However, for Doherty, it simply made sense: romantic, grounded, and rooted in the desire to share daily life with the person she loves.
She’s earned widespread acclaim for her role as forensic psychologist Briony Ariston in Adolescence and previously won an Emmy for the same performance. She has also spoken openly in past interviews about how accepting her sexuality has been a gradual and deeply personal process, shaped by self-reflection rather than public pressure.
On the podcast, she shared more context about the moment in her life when her relationship with Donnelly began. After hitting what she described as “a real kind of stopping point,” she moved in with her older sister in West Sussex. “I love my sister so much. She is just my safety net, my best friend. She’s just everything,” she said.
It was during that period that she met Donnelly, who lives in North London. The early days of their relationship involved long train journeys and time split between cities, until the distance began to feel unnecessary. “We just came to a place where it was like, as much as I love getting on the trains and going to see her and having days in London, I also want to wake up next to you. It’s like a natural progression,” she explained.
The timing of the podcast’s release came just hours after a major awards night for Adolescence, which also won Best Limited Series at the Critics Choice Awards. Doherty’s co-stars Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper took home acting trophies as well, further cementing the show’s place as one of the most talked-about series of the season.
For Doherty, this week has been about both recognition and honesty, celebrating a huge career moment and talking openly about what it means to love someone fiercely.
