Rivals Season 2 returned with a three-episode season premiere this week, and it leaves everyone wondering if and how Rupert Campbell-Black and Taggie O’Hara will find their way back to one another. The first season follows, among many other things with many other people, their relationship’s development. After a season of growth from Rupert, it all culminates in a kiss where Rupert tells Taggie, “I can’t breathe without you.” However, by the Season 2 premiere, Taggie hasn’t heard another poetic word from the Olympian and Minister of Sport. Instead, Rupert has made a sort of life with Cameron Cook in an effort to protect her from Corinium’s Tony Baddingham.
It doesn’t help Rupert or Taggie that new characters and new obstacles compound on the people and things already keeping and pulling them apart. So, there is plenty for Alex Hassell, who plays Rupert, and Bella Maclean, who portrays Taggie, to dive into in the show’s 12-episode sophomore season. In my exclusive interview with the Rivals stars, Hassell and Maclean talked about everything from what it was like to dive back into Dame Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles on screen and what to expect from the season ahead.
For Hassell, it was about “Getting to play the characters again and getting to be in all the relationships again and play the amazing new material, getting to sort of show new aspects of the characters in new dimensions to the relationships, and, you know, invite new characters and new actors into Rutshire. That was really exciting.”
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One of those new characters is Malise Gordon from Cooper’s Riders, the book before Rivals that explores Rupert’s show-jumping days. Rupert and Malise have quite a history. Not only was Malise Rupert’s mentor, but he also married Helen, Rupert’s ex-wife and the mother of his children. In the series, Rupert Everett steps into Malise’s shoes, acting opposite Hassell in the season’s second episode. “It was great both working with him and with Hayley Atwell,” Hassell shared. Hayley Atwell joins this season as Helen Gordon.
Hassell also shared that meeting Rupert’s children helps to “really reveal different sides to him and his past, and what he’s trying to repair, I suppose.” That’s right – Rivals Season 2 introduces Tabitha and Marcus, Rupert and Helen’s children, and even Taggie notices a different side of Rupert around them. “It was really brilliant. It’s a really great way to show different aspects of his character and what he’s wrestling with,” Hassell explained. The season supports that with these characters pulling internal monologues and unexplored history to the surface for Rupert to contend with in all new ways.
Rivals Season 2 also shows a new side of Taggie. This character has always been kind and selfless, and this season starts to see Taggie learn how to be selfish and put herself first. Bella Maclean really hopes “that the audience is sort of, like, rooting for her.” She pinpoints Taggie’s scene in the first episode, “where she actually stands up to Rupert and says, ‘Well, then you shouldn’t have kissed me, and you shouldn’t have sort of led me,’ and kind of turns on him.” Taggie tells him that she doesn’t think he’s capable of love, and Rupert has a physical reaction to that coming from someone he so clearly cares about.
But, as Maclean notes, Taggie “stands her ground. And I think that it was really satisfying to play that. And I hope the audience sort of love her growth, both physically and mentally, this season.” That arc for Taggie has certainly only begun in the first three episodes, so it’s exciting to imagine where it will go next. Many fans will be wondering if Rupert and Taggie’s respective growth will lead them back together. Hassell believes in the couple’s chances at a Happily Ever After. “It’s true love, I think, and that they are trying to make each other better, more fully actualized people, and true love is worth fighting for, I guess.”
MORE: Rivals Season 2, Episode 2 Review: Daughters and Dinner Parties
Maclean joked that she didn’t know how to top that answer, and she turned to Hassell again during my final question. She said, “he’s so good at answering things. I just piggyback and say that I said it myself. What did he say? Couldn’t have said it better.”
In October 2024, Dame Jilly Cooper went on Elizabeth Day’s podcast, How to Fail. When Day asked Cooper about her work, Cooper said, “I like making people happy.” In memory of Cooper, who passed away in October 2025, I ended my interview by asking Alex Hassell and Bella Maclean what they hoped fans would take away from their characters or the season as a whole.
Hassell approached his response with hesitation, that it may be a “kind of rubbish answer,” but it’s the opposite: “enjoyment.” “I mean, it’s been so overwhelming and moving how much people have responded to the show and how invested they are in the characters and the world that people have repeat watching the show multiple times. And I guess escapism is a really important part of that. And, you know, right now in the world, a bit of fun and a bit of lightness and escapism is really important. But it also does deal with really interesting, knotty issues. So I hope it’s thought-provoking too.”
I couldn’t agree more with Maclean that “that’s so well said.” Hassell’s answer really encapsulates what keeps drawing viewers into Rivals. Luckily, there is still more than half a season ahead for fans to enjoy for escapism, depth, and everything else that the show offers. Hopefully, there’s a bit of happiness in there for Rupert and Taggie, too – individually and together. They deserve it.
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