Is it hot in here, or did People just crown Jonathan Bailey as 2025’s Sexiest Man Alive? The magazine revealed its pick on Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The star, who will reprise his role as Prince Fiyero in Wicked: For Good, set to be released next month, called it “a huge honor.”
“Obviously I’m incredibly flattered,” he told People. “And it’s completely absurd. It’s been a secret, so I’m quite excited for some friends and family to find out.”
Bailey is the first openly gay man to be named Sexiest Man Alive. Bailey’s achievement is “a pop culture milestone that reflects just how far LGBTQ visibility in Hollywood has come,” GLAAD’s vice president of communications and talent Anthony Allen Ramos said in a statement.
“For decades, LGBTQ actors were excluded from conversations around leading-man appeal and blockbuster film franchises,” Ramos continued. “Seeing an out gay actor star in some of the most successful movies of recent times and celebrated by People in this way sends a powerful message to the industry that audiences everywhere know that authenticity is attractive.”
Former Sexiest Men Alive were eager to welcome the newest member of their attractive brotherhood before the announcement was made. In an Instagram video shared by People on Monday, past winners including Patrick Dempsey (2023), Idris Elba (2018), Blake Shelton (2017), Ryan Reynolds (2010) and Harry Hamlin (1987) took part in a playful “pass the phone” montage — ending with a call from the then-unseen 2025 Sexiest Man Alive.
Reynolds, who ultimately passed the phone to the newcomer, gave him some sage advice ahead of his photo shoot: “Just be judicious about, you know, where you get your lips done,” the Deadpool actor warned. “You don’t do it at a gas station.”
John Krasinski, known for his role on The Office, his directing and starring turn in A Quiet Place, and the Prime Video action series Jack Ryan, was named 2024’s Sexiest Man Alive — a title he was shocked to receive, telling the magazine last year that he thought he was being “punked.”
“That’s not how I wake up, thinking, ‘Is this the day that I’ll be asked to be Sexiest Man Alive?’ And yet it was the day you guys did it,” he recalled to People. “You guys have really raised the bar for me.”
Before Bailey was announced, fans threw out names of the man they most wanted to nab the title in 2025. In the comments section of People’s Instagram video, multiple fans suggested Materialists star Pedro Pascal. Other notable stars whose names have appeared in the comments include Austin Butler, Joe Jonas, Glen Powell, Tom Hiddleston and Jensen Ackles.
Several men have received the honor of Sexiest Man Alive more than once. Brad Pitt earned the title in both 1995 and 2000, George Clooney in 1997 and 2006, and Johnny Depp in 2003 and 2009. Richard Gere also took home the title more than once: first in 1993, as part of a Sexiest Couple Alive honor with Cindy Crawford, and again in 1999.