Forty-one years, one accidental invention, and a through-line of unforgettable props: a house-shaped teapot, a dog crate and leash, crates of $75-a-bottle red wine. When PEOPLE’s editors gathered for the PEOPLE VIP live chat on Thursday, Oct. 22 — Editor-in-Chief Charlotte Triggs, former executive editor Elizabeth Sporkin and moderator Ana Calderone — the history they told was less about covers than about the moments in between them.
1985: The Happy Accident
Every institution has an origin myth; this one’s is unusually honest. “The very first issue was 1985,” Triggs explained. “It was invented by accident because they had a photo shoot with Mel Gibson that was really hot. He looked amazing, but the interview … was unusable.” The solution — “Why don’t you just call him the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ and just run the pictures?” — created a franchise that has now run for 41 years. Gibson, now 70, led the charge for one of PEOPLE’s signature traditions without, presumably, knowing it at the time.
(Dominic Lockyer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0))The Franchise Grows Up
What began as a rescue operation became an annual event, and then an entire issue “filled with different takes on sexiness.” Sporkin’s own entry point was George Clooney’s 1997 issue, which she worked on as a staffer. The 2007 chapter supplied the franchise’s most gracious footnote: Matt Damon turned the title down by letter, was named anyway, and — “so touched,” per Sporkin — sent every editor on the issue a case of red wine at $75 a bottle. In 2010, Ryan Reynolds’ farm shoot in Atlanta paused for a rescue: a stray dog, “skin and bones,” fed against the farm owners’ warnings, adopted by a publicist, and sent home with Reynolds’ own dog’s crate and leash. Named Sam for the franchise, he lived about 15 more years.
2025: The Cover Star as Art Director
The modern era peaked, creatively, with Jonathan Bailey. Named the 2025 Sexiest Man Alive, the 38-year-old Bridgerton star treated his beach shoot in southern England as a production he was directing: styling input, time in the ocean, his dog Benson on set, and one immortal detail — the teapot. “There’s a shot of him pouring tea like sexily into a cup,” Triggs explained. “He bought the teapot on Amazon. It’s a cute little thing that looks like a house because he just had a vision.” The result was two different covers. “He’s a very creative person,” Triggs said. “He just really knew what he wanted… That’s what you hope for. You hope that someone will be that into it.”
(Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))The People’s Part
The franchise’s second engine is its audience. Through the Readers’ Choice Poll, readers this year crowned Belmont Cameli their favorite fictional hockey player in comments that “got heated,” gave Dancing with the Stars pro Pasha Pashkov a perfect 10, declared Craig Melvin the “Sexiest Morning Show Host,” anointed Travis Kelce a sexy cat dad, and confirmed Stephen Colbert as a silver fox who keeps getting better with age. The poll turns a coronation into a conversation — the same energy the VIP chat itself is built on, with members asking questions in real time during weekly conversations.
(Elena Ternovaja / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0))The Chat Itself
The revelations arrived in a format that is itself part of the modern franchise. PEOPLE VIP Live Chats give members the chance to ask questions in real time during weekly conversations with celebrities, authors and PEOPLE’s own editors; recent editions have featured The Baby-Sitters Club author Ann M. Martin, the winner and finalists of PEOPLE’s Next Red Carpet Reporter, and the magazine’s royals experts on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s return to the U.K. Members also receive PEOPLE two days before it hits newsstands, monthly bonus issues and — for those who join by Oct. 31, 2026 — a limited-edition tote bag and an official Sexiest Man Alive beach towel. That the Oct. 22 session paired Triggs, the sitting editor-in-chief, with Sporkin, a former executive editor whose tenure reaches back to the Clooney era, was the point: living memory, answering questions live.
It also explains the candor. These were not anecdotes polished for a press release; they were working editors trading stories — the unusable Gibson interview, Damon’s polite refusal letter, a stray dog fed against instructions on a farm in Atlanta. Forty-one years in, the franchise’s most valuable asset may be that its keepers still tell its history like gossip among friends, because for them, that is exactly what it is.
What Comes Next
The next edition, Triggs revealed, will feature six shoots — each spotlighting a different kind of sexiness — plus another centerfold. Her cover tease for the star was total: “Our cover star is epic,” she said. “And I’m super excited because I think it’s going to be something that like everybody’s going to just be like, ‘That’s awesome.'” The selection philosophy, she added, is simple: “You got to just pick the person who represents that year.” After 41 years of accidents, refusals, rescues and teapots, the franchise’s real secret may be that simple — the right person, at the right moment, with a story worth retelling. “So I think we nailed it this year,” Triggs said. “Yeah. I’m excited.” The reveal, when it comes, will land with 41 years of accumulated ritual behind it — and, if this chat proved anything, with a fresh set of stories already being saved up for the next anniversary. PEOPLE VIP members can get the issue early in the PEOPLE app, ahead of the newsstand release.