Dan and Phil’s relationship – The YouTubers’ living together situation clarified

Daniel Howell and Phil Lester are best known collectively as ‘Dan and Phil’. They are a popular British entertainment duo who got their start on YouTube all the way back when it was a niche platform. After their first collaboration in 2010, they expanded their joint work across films, television, radio, world tours, and merchandise.

The pair, however, took a hiatus for two years from 2019 to 2021 after Dan decided to leave YouTube to focus on his mental health. But after his eventual return, they resumed their online work without many hitches and continue to put out videos together for their channels to this day.

Dan and Phil first met in 2010 to collaborate on a YouTube video and they have since formed a lasting personal and professional relationship

Phil was one of the earliest YouTubers who started making videos and uploading them to the platform in 2006. Although he had limited viewers at the time, Dan had been a fan of his content and had reached out to him on Twitter. Dan was encouraged to make his own YouTube channel in 2009 after meeting Phil on the internet, who convinced him to upload his first video.

In 2010, the pair met for the first time in person to collaborate on a video for Dan’s YouTube channel then called ‘Dan is not on fire’. The video in question, titled ‘Amazing Dan’, was a humorous Q & A segment that was uploaded on May 28, 2010.

Since then, Dan and Phil have gone on to have a sturdy friendship and business partnership for years to come.

Apart from frequently appearing on each other’s individual YouTube channels, they have worked together on three more channels known as ‘Dan And Phil CRAFTS’, ‘Dan And Phil GAMES’ and ‘The Super Amazing Project’. They have also hosted award shows, and radio segments and even made voice cameos on animated films.

By October 2015, Dan and Phil co-wrote and published a book together titled ‘The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire’. In the same year, they launched their first tour and theatrical stage show ‘The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire’ which was later released as a YouTube Red Original concert film in 2016. The duo then embarked on their second world tour in 2018.

“We decided to produce [the concert film] ourselves and talk about where to put it afterwards, but when we were introduced to ‘YouTube Red’ it made perfect sense. All our audience is already on YouTube, so why make them go anywhere else to watch it?” Phil told Variety.

In a 2019 coming-out video, Dan seemingly alluded to a romantic relationship with Phil that happened in the past

Dan and Phil’s consistent collaboration and closeness over the years made fans curious about the nature of their friendship and many wondered if there were more to it. As speculated, Dan later alluded to a previous romantic relationship with Phil in his coming out video.

In the 2019 YouTube video uploaded on June 14, Dan came out as gay after feeling the need to put the online discussion about his sexual orientation to rest. Despite calling himself gay, he personally “loves the word queer” to label how he actually felt, saying:

“I’m pretty sure that no one who knows me thinks I am straight. So, I don’t really need to come out as much as just clarify what the hell is going on.”

Dan also shed light on the emotional neglect he experienced as a child, the struggle with his identity, and the homophobia he endured growing up. He suffered from clinical depression as a teenager and had attempted to take his life. Thus, he initially signed up on YouTube to redefine his life after the incident and ended up meeting Phil around a difficult time in his life.

“I met Phil and obviously, we were more than friends but it was more than just romantic. This is someone that genuinely liked me. I trusted them and for the first time since I was a tiny child, I actually felt safe. And the relationship we formed at that point was something that I needed in my life,” said Dan.

Moreover, Dan described themselves as “real best friends and companions through life” and said that their relationship was founded on compatibility and acceptance of each other. He even referred to Phil as his “soulmate” but did not divulge any personal details about their relationship, preferring to keep it private.

Shortly after Dan’s video, Phil also came out as gay on his ‘Amazing Phil’ channel video on July 1, 2019, and said that he had known since he was twelve that he was not straight.

Dan and Phil have been living as roommates since 2011 and recently bought a house together

Although Dan and Phil may have dated in the past, it is not known whether they remain romantically involved to this day. However, they have been living together for the past decade.

In mid-2011, Dan moved out of his university dorm and rented an apartment in Manchester, living with Phil as his roommate. He talked about their living situation in a now archived house tour video where he said:

“If you didn’t know, I am living with Phil this year which has its ups and downs.”

By the end of July 2012, Phil tweeted about them moving to a new apartment and it came to be known that they settled in London (where they have been living since).

Furthermore, they bought a house together in 2017 and worked on its interior design for three years before it was ready to be lived in.

“This has been a project that we have been working on since 2017. [The house] is a new build and that means that other than the outside which we could not change, we have designed the entire thing from the ground up,” Dan said in their video titled ‘Something we want to tell you’.

Despite the announcement of moving together and other life updates, they preferred not to give a house tour out of privacy concerns. On June 19, 2021, Dan and Phil finally moved together into their newly-bought home. Dan celebrated the move with a tweet proclaiming:

“The box boys are now officially homeowning homosexuals.”