Over four movies, the romcom heroine has had many suitors. We take a trip down memory lane to revisit all her former flames and see who her best and worst matches were.
Bridget Jones is arguably the most iconic romcom heroine of the 21st century. She originated in Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary” newspaper column, which she then expanded into a novel of the same name. Bridget made her way to the big screen in the 2001 adaptation of the book, starring Renée Zellweger in the title role. Since then, Bridget has returned in three further films, the most recent being 2025’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
Bridget’s relatable relationship struggles and her tendency to find herself in all sorts of wacky romcom shenanigans have endeared her to audiences for over 20 years. Here is a highly subjective ranking of the main love interests who have appeared in the four Bridget Jones films, from the best match for our heroine to the worst match.
1) Mark Darcy (Colin Firth)
Bridget Jones’s Diary is loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The biggest giveaway is Mr Darcy. Colin Firth was cast in the role because, in Fielding’s book, Bridget has a crush on Mr Darcy, as portrayed by Firth in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries. While the stuffy and uptight Mark Darcy is initially condescending towards Bridget, he eventually proves to be always there for her when she needs him. After an on-again, off-again romance, Bridget eventually marries Mark at the end of Bridget Jones’s Baby and has two children with him.
Mark tragically dies on a humanitarian aid mission in Sudan between Bridget Jones’s Baby and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Fielding took inspiration for this story development from real life: her ex-partner and the father of her two children, TV comedy writer Kevin Curran, died of cancer.
Looking back, some fans have since questioned how compatible Mark and Bridget really are, but for many, he will be the ‘One Who Was Meant To Be’.
2) Scott Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor)
One of two potential love interests for Bridget introduced in Mad About the Boy, Scott Walliker is the new science teacher at the school that Bridget’s children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic), attend. Scott is uptight and rational to a fault, but his measured demeanour eventually turns out to be the ideal counterpoint to Bridget’s chaotic tendencies. His earnestness is readily apparent, and he’s a great teacher, too. He even makes a romantic speech in which he cites Newton’s third law.
In some ways, Scott seems like the second coming of Mark Darcy. “You wouldn’t want to even try to step into those shoes in any way,” Ejiofor tells Decider about the comparisons, calling Mr Darcy “iconic”. “Clearly, there [were] some echoes, but I definitely felt that Mr Walliker had his own essence,” he adds.
3) Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant)
Analogous to George Wickham from Pride and Prejudice, the Bridget Jones franchise’s resident bad boy is brought to life by British romcom mainstay Hugh Grant. Daniel has plenty of red flags: he’s a brazen womaniser and acts inappropriately towards his female employees at his book publishing firm (Bridget starts out working there). Daniel and Mark attended university together and were friends until Mark caught his wife cheating on him with Daniel.
For all Daniel’s faults, Grant’s roughish charm makes it difficult to hate the character completely. Daniel and Bridget also have sparkling back-and-forth repartee, which makes their interactions that much more fun.
In Bridget Jones’s Baby, Daniel was presumed dead in a plane crash but later revealed to have been found alive. He returns in Mad About the Boy, helping Bridget look after her kids, who call him Uncle Daniel. Maybe Daniel and Bridget are better as friends, after all.
4) Roxster McDuff (Leo Woodall)
Besides Scott, the other man vying for Bridget’s affection in Mad About the Boy is Roxster McDuff, a young park ranger whom Bridget meets on Tinder. The age-gap romance set fans’ tongues wagging (Zellweger and Woodall are 22 years apart).
Roxster’s big moment in the film comes when he arrives at a lavish garden party just as the host’s dog falls into the pool. He dives into the pool to rescue the dog, further endearing himself to Bridget, who is also at the party. This echoes the scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary in which Daniel plunges into a lake, which was, in turn, a reference to Mr Darcy’s emergence from a lake in Pride and Prejudice.
While Roxster is sweet and represents Bridget’s desire for a fresh start four years after Mark’s death, he is not terribly interesting and doesn’t have a lot in common with Bridget.
5) Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey)
Our apologies to Grey’s Anatomy heartthrob Patrick Dempsey: the consensus is that Jack Qwant, a wealthy tech entrepreneur who launched a dating site, is the least popular Bridget beau. Jack appears in Bridget Jones’s Baby, where he and Bridget meet at a music festival. After spending a drunken night in his yurt despite barely knowing him, Bridget becomes pregnant and is unsure if the baby is Jack’s or Mark’s.
While Jack is supportive of Bridget during her pregnancy, going so far as attending prenatal classes with Bridget and Mark, he just doesn’t fit into the Bridget Jones world.
The character was written to replace Daniel after Grant declined to return for Bridget Jones’s Baby. Alas, Jack cannot transcend this status as a last-minute stand-in for Daniel.
Renée Zellweger returns as Bridget, now a widowed mother who must juggle work, parenthood and romance. With the help of her loyal friends, Bridget navigates encounters with a younger man.
View Details
At the start of the New Year, Bridget decides it's time to take control of her life – and start keeping a diary. Now, the most provocative book on her bedside table is the one she's writing.
View Details
This follow-up to the international smash hit Bridget Jones' Diary picks up four weeks later as Bridget already begins to question her romance with the ultra-conservative Marc Darcy (Colin Firth).
View Details
Breaking up with Mark Darcy leaves Bridget Jones single again. Suddenly, her love life comes back from the dead. Things couldn't be better until Bridget discovers that she is pregnant.
View DetailsImages: Giles Keyte © Universal Pictures, © 2025 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved