The second season of Fleabag may have reached an international audience and won Phoebe Waller-Bridge three Emmys, but it’s no secret that the real headline of the show was the hysteria over Andrew Scott’s appearance as the iconic “Hot Priest”.

Whether he’s sipping from a tin of M&S G & T or enjoying a bit of J-Lo as he goes about his business, we all fell head-over-heels for the delightfully unorthodox attitude of Fleabag’s love interest. And while Phoebe Waller-Bridge has already revealed the reason why the Hot Priest was the perfect pairing for the character of Fleabag, the audience’s complete obsession with Scott’s character has remained a bit of a mystery.

That is, until now. During the opening monologue for her Saturday Night Live (SNL) guest host last night, Waller-Bridge revealed the real reason why the Hot Priest has become such a phenomenon – and it’s all to do with one simple detail.

“I call the character Priest in the script, but everyone started calling him Hot Priest,” Waller-Bridge recalls.

“Obviously Andrew is hot, but this Priest character caused such a horn storm,” she continues, as the audience erupts with laughter. “Andrew and I were trying to figure out what it was about him that was driving women so mental. And we boiled it down and realised, it was because he was doing this one thing. Listening. Really, really listening. Try it guys.”

During the jam-packed opening monologue, Waller-Bridge also explained how she is similar to the character of Fleabag – and joked about the real reason why she wrote the “Hot Priest” character in the first place.

“I wrote and acted in a TV show called Fleabag, which is about a woman who is trying to navigate her life in London. People often assume that I am like the character Fleabag, simply because I wrote it,” she says. “Sexually depraved, foul-mouthed, dangerous – and I always have to say to them, yes. You’re absolutely right.

“In fact, everything I write has a degree of truth, and every project is different,” she continues. “I’m not a sex addict because I wrote Fleabag, but I did write Killing Eve because I’m a psychopath.

“Fleabag came from a very personal place for me,” she adds. “It began as a way to get Andrew Scott to dress up as a priest, and tell me that he loves me. It took me six years and two seasons to achieve it but I did it. Yeah, I don’t care about awards – I just want gay men to love me.”

The show also featured Waller-Bridge in a number of hilarious sketches, including a parody of Love Island, in which the actor appeared as one of the show’s contestants who is eventually dumped from the island. 

Waller-Bridge had already made headlines for her appearance on SNL before the show had even begun, thanks to her iconic promo video. Throughout the clip, which debuted earlier this week, Waller-Bridge is shown refusing to put down her three Emmy awards as she speaks to producers and brainstorms ideas for the show, and it’s officially hilarious.

One incredible moment from the clip shows Waller-Bridge in the middle of a conversation about the show only to say “water, water,” so one of the show’s newest cast members Chloe Fineman has to bring the glass over to her and hold it up to her mouth – because, of course, when you’ve won three Emmys, who has the time to put them down?

Throughout the video she’s shown gripping them in her arms as she’s pitched a sketch and refusing to put them down when she needs to press a lift button.

It was first announced that Waller-Bridge would be hosting SNL back in September, when we found out that the British comedian would be collaborating with Taylor Swift as the show’s musical guest. As you can imagine, we were immediately obsessed – and so was the world-famous pop star, apparently.

Taking to Twitter to share the announcement, Swift wasn’t afraid to lose her cool.

“Ever since I saw Fleabag, I’ve been all ‘I can’t wait to see this woman host @nbcsnl’,” the Lover singer wrote.

“It’s happening now + I get to be there too = I am in shambles,” she added. 

It’s nice to know that Taylor Swift is still just as obsessed with Phoebe Waller-Bridge as we are.

Swift first revealed her love for everything Fleabag and Killing Eve (both of which Waller-Bridge created) in a May 2019 interview with EW.

“I’m really, really obsessed with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her writing,” she said – and honestly, same. “She makes you crack up, shocks you, and breaks your heart all in the span of a few minutes in [Fleabag].”

Although Swift has appeared on the show multiple times in the past (twice as a musical guest and once to host the show), last night was Waller-Bridge’s first SNL appearance. The late-night comedy show features a series of comedic sketches, satirical news and digital shorts – all of which the show’s host performs in, too.

You can catch more of Waller-Bridge’s hilarious sketches on the SNL YouTube channel – trust us, they’re even more funny than you’d expect.

Image: Getty