Viscountess of Hearts

She was catapulted into the stratosphere as Bridgerton's leading lady in 2022, but Simone Ashley is quite enjoying the descent as the spotlight shifts to a new couple this season. Speaking with Grammy Award nominee and fellow South Asian artiste Anoushka Shankar, she reflects on navigating fame, where she's headed next and if her path will lead her to India

- NIKHIL MANSATA

In the last episode of Bridgerton season two, Kate Sharma furrows her brow as she glides across the dancefloor in the arms of Anthony Bridgerton. A barely perceptible change in expression, yet it conveys so much: longing, vulnerability, trust and-finally the admission of love. It was such a captivating detail that women, in the thrall of peak girlhood, began recreating the 'eyebrow scrunch' for Instagram reels. "More chemistry than the periodic table," the internet collectively dubbed the enemies-to-lovers story arc. Sadly, the #Kanthony wedding and honeymoon happened off-screen, robbing viewers of the opportunity to see them start their life together as newlyweds. But our imagination takes flight as Simone Ashley exchanges her Regency robes for a sexy zardozi bralette-miniskirt set custom-made by Masaba Gupta for our cover shoot. Could this have been the outfit that relieved the viscount of his last remaining vestige of gentlemanliness? Could this have been Sharma's way of getting back at him for all the times he vexed (read: aroused) her? The red and gold embroidered outfit certainly seems like something Sharma would wear under the cheeky pretext of inducting her new husband into her culture.

When musician and Bridgerton fan Anoushka Shankar arrives on set to interview Ashley for this story, the actor is in the middle of a shot and doesn't notice her walk in. "That's fine, I'm happy to just look at her," says Shankar, watching appreciatively as Ashley strikes a flurry of poses. Afterwards, they get down to talking shop, growing up South Asian and representing their heritage through the arts.