Daphne Bridgerton ends up with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, in Bridgerton.

Who does Daphne end up with in Bridgerton?

In the Netflix series Bridgerton season 1, Daphne’s love story centers on her evolving relationship with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings. What begins as a pretend courtship to help both of their social situations turns into a real romance and ultimately a marriage.

Quick Scoop: The Ending

  • Daphne marries Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings.
  • She turns down the more “perfect on paper” option of Prince Friedrich and chooses Simon instead.
  • By the end of season 1, Daphne and Simon are living as a married couple and welcome a baby son together.
  • In later seasons, Daphne appears without Simon on screen because he’s off managing their country estate, but they are still presented as a settled couple.

How Daphne and Simon Get Together

Their relationship is built on a fake-dating pact that spirals into real feelings:

  • Simon and Daphne agree to a “false courtship”:
    • Daphne will seem more desirable to other suitors.
    • Simon will be left alone by ambitious debutantes and their mothers.
  • The plan backfires when they genuinely fall in love.
  • After an improper kiss in the garden, Daphne’s brother Anthony demands Simon marry her or fight a duel to defend her honor.
  • Simon insists he cannot give Daphne children because of a vow tied to his traumatic past with his father, but Daphne chooses to marry him anyway, knowing this.

Their marriage is rocky at first, with miscommunication and pain around Simon’s refusal to have children, but they eventually reconcile and recommit to each other.

Where Daphne Ends Up by Season 1 Finale

By the final episode of season 1:

  • Daphne gives birth to a baby boy, the future heir to the Hastings title.
  • Simon is by her side, clearly emotionally invested in both his wife and child.
  • They decide to continue the Hastings family tradition of naming sons in alphabetical order, starting with “A.”

So in story terms, Daphne gets the classic Regency “happy ending”: she’s a duchess, married to the Duke of Hastings, with a son and a country estate.

Fan & Forum Talk: “Should She Have Picked the Prince?”

Online, there’s a whole side discussion about whether Daphne should have ended up with Prince Friedrich instead:

  • Some fans argue the prince was kinder, steadier, and less emotionally complicated, and that Daphne might have had a calmer, healthier marriage with him.
  • Others feel that the intense, slightly messy passion between Daphne and Simon is exactly what makes the romance compelling and on-brand for this genre.

One Reddit discussion breaks it down like this:

Simon pulls away because he doesn’t want to deny her children, but Daphne still thinks of him even when she’s with the prince. Their kiss before the duel is them finally expressing feelings they can’t articulate.

That tension is why many viewers accept that, narratively, Daphne was always heading toward Simon, not the prince.

Is This Still “Latest” as of 2026?

  • On the show, nothing has changed about Daphne’s endgame: she is still canonically with Simon, off-screen, by the time season 3’s coverage and recent explainers talk about her fate.
  • Recent articles in 2024–2025 explaining “what happened to Daphne” confirm she has a husband, a son, an estate, and a settled duchess life away from the main Bridgerton drama.

Mini TL;DR

  • Daphne does not end up with Prince Friedrich.
  • She does end up with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings.
  • They marry, work through their issues, and have a son together by the end of season 1, remaining together in the background of later seasons.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.