Next month, comedy YouTubers Dan Howell and Phil Lester will jet off on a 65-date world tour, during which they will appear in front of thousands of their loyal followers to share their love story.

No doubt fans will be listening eagerly. For ever since Dan and Phil confirmed they had been secretly dating for 16 years – something many fans long suspected – there has been fervid interest in their relationship.

Indeed, the shows – which will see Dan and Phil perform their podcast, Hard Launch, live in the UK, Singapore, the US and Australia – are already sold out.

However, I can reveal that those who have been involved in organising the tour believe the couple are keeping a secret from their millions of fans.

I’m told that Dan has formed a close friendship with another man who will be joining them on the tour, though sources say he will remain firmly behind the scenes.

Multiple sources close to the influencers have contacted me claiming they have been aware of his existence for the last four years and they ask why he has never been mentioned in any of their videos.

‘It’s really bewildering that they don’t mention this man in anything they do,’ says my source. ‘They have been planning this massive podcast tour and Dan’s “friend” is due to go. You have to wonder how he must feel, he’s so supportive to Dan and Phil. To some the pair come across like business partners stuck in a job who have to tolerate each other until the next windfall comes.

‘When they announced they were together, Phil’s channel views were falling and Dan’s tour hadn’t performed as well as expected. They’re about to head off on another world tour where the whole thing is built around Dan and Phil being “soulmates” and they have relentlessly pushed their “couple” merchandise, which has been criticised for being shoddy by those involved in their projects.’

Comedy YouTubers Dan Lester and Phil Howell will jet off on a 65-date world tour next month

In October 2025, Dan, 35, and Phil, 39, who share a £4million penthouse apartment in Islington, north London, revealed their 'secret' in a 46-minute YouTube video titled ‘Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship? The Truth’.

The announcement, shared with their 3.1million YouTube subscribers, opened with the pair asking: ‘Shall we just tell the truth and talk about one of the biggest conspiracies of the internet?’

They told their combined audience of more than ten million followers that they had, in fact, been romantically involved all along. The emotional confession generated more than four million views, dominated headlines and sent fans into meltdown.

Dan explained they had avoided addressing the rumours for years because they wanted audiences to focus on their comedy rather than their private lives. And he said one of the key reasons he kept both his sexuality and his relationship with Phil under wraps was because of his ‘extremely homophobic childhood’.

‘[The dating rumours] got so loud that we were left with the option to address it or suppress it,’ he said.

‘We wanted the focus to be on what we were doing, the entertaining and the comedy, not us. And there is a lot of homophobia out there.

‘We fell into it hard and fast in 2009 and here we are sixteen years later. Relationship, boyfriends, partners in everything.’

The video ended with another major announcement, the launch of their aptly named Hard Launch podcast, which quickly climbed the charts.

The couple, who share a £4million penthouse apartment in Islington, north London, revealed they were in a relationship in October last year

One devoted fan even commented: ‘It is bigger news than Taylor Swift getting engaged.’

Weeks later came news of their fourth world tour – and their first marketed as a public couple.

‘We just want to go on stage and be completely ourselves and not hold anything back,’ Dan told one magazine when promoting the tour.

However, despite ‘breaking the internet’ with their revelation, some fans have questioned whether Dan and Phil have ever actually been together. There is wide speculation amongst their following that the pair realised that being in a relationship would help revive their brand.

Some eagle-eyed followers have noticed that despite being in a ‘relationship’, they at times appear to slip up and call one another ‘mate’ or ‘friend.’

My source says: ‘The pair of them love money and nice things and they are making around £20,000 per week at the moment just from YouTube, which since their announcement, has been couple content.

‘There is a view that they scoured all of the fan pages and went with whatever the fans are saying. The team around them couldn’t believe it when Dan and Phil did the video announcing their relationship but I guess it makes sense, it generates cash.’

Dan and Phil’s story stretches back to 2009. Phil, who grew up in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, had already built a successful YouTube following after launching his AmazingPhil channel in 2006. Dan discovered his videos, became a fan and eventually contacted him online.

Their first live tour in 2015 was the biggest ever staged by YouTube creators at the time, spanning the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia

Inspired by Phil, Dan, from the leafy Berkshire village of Winnersh, uploaded his first video to his own channel, then called danisnotonfire, in October 2009.

They met in person later that month before filming their first collaboration, a video titled ‘Phil is not on fire’.

It became an annual tradition, eventually spanning ten instalments between 2009 and 2018.

The pair took a break from YouTube in 2019 and in June that year both separately came out as gay, around two weeks apart. It was also the moment fans first began questioning whether their relationship was more than friendship.

Over the years, speculation only intensified as they moved into the London penthouse together, holidayed together and regularly appeared side by side across their content.

In September 2014 they launched their joint gaming channel, DanAndPhilGAMES, which became the fastest YouTube channel ever to reach one million subscribers after hitting the milestone in March 2015.

Their first live tour in 2015 was the biggest ever staged by YouTube creators at the time, spanning the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia.

That same year they released The Amazing Book is Not on Fire which topped The Sunday Times best-seller list and became a No1 New York Times young adult best-seller – and in 2016, they were named among Britain’s 500 most influential people.

Videos titled ‘How We Really Feel About Weddings’ and ‘Will Phil Propose To Dan?’ and ‘Our First Christmas As A Couple’ are just a few that the pair have released since their announcement – all of which have racked up around 400,000 views each.

Very few internet creators have enjoyed such a level of success as this pair have achieved and yet those familiar with the inner workings of Brand Dan and Phil tell me that at times they have been surprised that they are not quite as jovial and wholesome behind the scenes.

In fact, one claims to have witnessed the pair ‘make sly digs’ at their fans which they have found ‘difficult’.

Now, as they prepare to embark on that sold-out worldwide tour, built entirely around their love story, questions persist.

Will one of the internet's most talked about couples confirm their romance, or has this pairings become more about their brand than love?

Dan and Phil have been approached for comment.

Move over Michael Owen – there’s another star the family are hoping viewers will tune in for. While Amazon Prime’s new reality series Meet the Owens promises a behind-the-scenes look at the football legend’s family, I’m told it’s eldest daughter Gemma and her aspiring influencer siblings that the Owens are hoping will become the show’s breakout stars. Since finishing as a runner-up on Love Island in 2022, Gemma has reinvented herself, swapping reality TV headlines for the horse racing world while launching her own luxury jewellery and swimwear brands. The six-part series follows Michael, wife Louise and their four children juggling family life with their horse racing business. But insiders say the real aim is for Gemma to take centre stage – and give the entire Owen clan a social media boost in the process. Gemma’s brother James is hoping to follow in the family’s equestrian footsteps as a mature jockey, while younger university-bound sister Emily also looks well placed to cash in on the family’s new TV fame with future brand deals.

Meanwhile the youngest in the family, aspiring Olympian Jessica, who is a dressage rider, is already building an online following.

Usually it’s fashion labels and beauty brands whisking influencers off on lavish brand trips. This week, though, it was AI taking centre stage. ChatGPT invited a group of creators to an idyllic ‘Summer Camp’ in upstate New York, giving them ‘hands-on experience’ with its new Work tools before attendees shared them with their millions of followers. But it hasn’t gone down well with fans. The trip quickly sparked backlash, with critics slamming attendees for promoting AI despite growing concerns over its environmental impact. AI relies on enormous data centres that consume vast amounts of electricity and water, while producing significant electronic waste. Among those facing criticism was creator Grace McCarrick, who insisted her ‘morals are not compromised’, arguing she wanted to understand technology shaping the future. Fellow influencer Megan Lieu echoed the sentiment, saying she’d rather ‘move in the direction of change, not against it’. An absurd defence in my opinion.

Up

London’s self-styled pickpocket hunter Diego Galdino. The Brazilian-born content creator, better known as Pickpocket London, has gone viral for patrolling tourist hotspots armed with a GoPro and a can of spray paint, publicly calling out suspected thieves before they can strike. Love his methods or loathe them, his videos have sparked a huge debate online while shining a spotlight on the capital’s pickpocketing problem and he’s become one of the internet’s most talked-about vigilantes in the process.

Down

It looks like yoga brand Alo has no plans to slow down its influencer spending. The cult activewear brand has just enlisted Bella Hadid as its latest famous face, joining a star-studded roster that already includes Kylie Jenner, Alix Earle, Olivia Neill and Saffron Barker. With leggings costing as much as £128, it’s clearly got the budget to splash out on A-list ambassadors. But while Alo continues to dominate social media feeds, its sustainability credentials are far less glamorous, with low ratings across people, planet and animal welfare.

Cameron Dallas. Remember him? The former Vine superstar has now released his seventh album of the year in what looks like one of the most baffling music comebacks yet. After I revealed he had made a quiet exit from his record label and two underwhelming singles, the influencer appears to be leaning on Artificial Intelligence through his own company, DGA Records, to churn out new music at breakneck speed. Once tipped to become the next Justin Bieber, the social media sensation now seems more focused on his AI business than topping the charts.

Wonder Woman! TikTok influencer Maisie Crompton started her bag business, TotesForYouu, at just 24 years old as a new mum. Using social media, this week, her business reached the incredible milestone of surpassing £1million in revenue. Her content and her bags are well worth the investment!

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