House of Guinness actor on 'invented' gay storyline after family member's criticism

One of the main actors who starred in House of Guinness has spoken out about the plotline in which one of the Guinness siblings is found to be secretly gay, something one of the living family members called ‘invented’.

The show follows the four children of Sir Benjamin Guinness and their attempts to retain control of the beer company after his death.

Created by Netflix, the series has been a massive success so far, continuing to top the streamer’s charts in the UK almost a week on from its release.

Whilst the series has received criticism in particular from Irish critics and fans for its realism, one particular plotline that has had fans enamoured is that of Arthur Guinness.

Arthur, played by Anthony Boyle, is the eldest son of the Guinness children and one of the two to inherit the company in both the show and real life.

Towards the end of the first episode however it is revealed that Arthur is secretly gay, a fact the republican Fenians have discovered and are using to blackmail him.

This is a major plotline throughout the season and likely promises to play a continued role if and when Netflix announces a season two of House of Guinness.

Speaking about playing Arthur as a closeted gay man, Boyle said in an interview with Town and Country Magazine: “What Steven [Knight] and Tom [Shankland], one of the directors, and I wanted to get across about Arthur was that he didn’t feel shame about his own sexuality.

“We wanted to get across that it was society that was wrong, but he was right.”

The storyline is very well handled in the show, but has led to questions of historical accuracy (Netflix)

Molly Guinness, one of the remaining living Guinness’, has slammed the series, saying the characters ‘come straight from a bingo card of modern clichés about rich people.’

Writing about the show for The Times, she also said: “Arthur’s (invented) gay exploits also allow for some rich comedy.”

Is there any evidence Arthur Guinness was actually gay?

Whether or not the show’s portrayal of Arthur were entirely ‘invented’ is debatable, but they are certainly on shaky ground historically.

The real Arthur Guinness never ‘came out’, however that occurring would’ve been incredibly unlikely anyways considering it was an offence punishable by life in prison.

Joe Joyce, an Irish historian who wrote a book about the Guinness family in 2009, was the first to truly speculate that Arthur was gay.

This was due in part to the fact that he had no children in his nearly 50 years of marriage to Olivia Hedges and was rumoured to have a ‘unique’ marriage with her devoid of sex.

Molly reserves most of her criticism of the show for the way it characterises her ancestors, saying it 'seems unjust' to portray Edward and Arthur Guinness as 'knaves and fools'.

People online are torn about this decision to then take these rumours and categorically make Arthur gay in the show.

Arthur Guinness is played by Anthony Boyle in the show (Netflix)

One fan tweeted: “Even though some historians have apparently speculated on Arthur Guinness potentially being gay, I’m still not sure how I feel about Netflix’s House of Guinness portraying the character this way.

“Feels disrespectful if it’s not 100% confirmed. (And I say this as a gay man.)”

Nevertheless, Anthony Boyle spoke in an interview with Sky News about LGBTQIA+ people in history, saying: “Gay people have always been there from the dawn of time, it’s just they weren’t written about.

“If you don’t follow the clues when they’re there you’ll write these people out of history.”