Every reign ends with a handover, and Jonathan Bailey is approaching his with characteristic good humour. After twelve months as PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive, the 38-year-old actor has been reflecting on what the year actually involved — and sharing some advice for the soon-to-be-announced successor who is about to find out for himself.
The title, announced a year ago to enormous fanfare, turned out to be less a single moment than a rolling season of attention. There were covers and late-night jokes, questions in every interview and a running gag among his co-stars that showed no sign of exhausting itself. Bailey, by all accounts, leaned into all of it — which may be the first piece of advice in itself: enjoy it, because it is genuinely fun, and it does not last forever.
A Year That Refused to Slow Down
Most titleholders would be forgiven for treating the honour as the headline act of their year. For Bailey it shared the billing with a workload that would floor most actors. The centrepiece was Wicked: For Good, the concluding chapter of the two-part film adaptation of the beloved stage musical, in which he returns as Fiyero, the roguish prince whose charm conceals a considerably more interesting interior life.
The film’s global success meant Bailey’s reign doubled as a worldwide promotional tour: premieres, press junkets and red carpets on several continents, each one generating fresh photographs for the magazines that had just crowned him. It is one thing to be named the Sexiest Man Alive; it is another to spend the entire year proving, in tailored suit after tailored suit, that the voters and editors chose well.
(Thorsten Krienke from Detmold, Germany / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))The Campaign Trail: Aperitivos and Armani
Alongside the films came the partnerships that have become a standard feature of the modern titleholder’s year. Bailey fronted campaigns for the Italian aperitivo brand Martini, selling the Aperitivo hour as a golden, unhurried ritual — an easy fit for an actor whose public persona blends old-school polish with evident mischief. He also partnered with Armani Beauty, stepping into the fragrance-and-grooming world that treats a leading man’s face as a global billboard.
These deals matter to the story because they mark a threshold. Bailey spent years as the actor critics praised and casting directors queued for; the brand world operates on a different currency, closer to pure recognisability. A Sexiest Man Alive title, a blockbuster musical and a pair of luxury campaigns in the same twelve months amount to a formal announcement: the respected stage actor is now a mainstream star, with the commercial machinery to match.
And Now for Something Completely Gothic
The most Bailey project of the year, though, was the quietest. Between blockbusters, he lent his voice to an audio adaptation of Dracula, Bram Stoker‘s immortal Gothic novel — a production carried entirely by the instrument that theatre audiences have admired since he was a child performer. No cameras, no tailoring, no cover shoot: just a voice in a studio, building Transylvania out of breath and timing.
It was a telling choice. The audio Dracula reminded everyone that Bailey’s fame rests on something more durable than a magazine cover — a technique learned across decades of stage work. If the title year had a thesis, this was it: the face may sell the fragrance, but the craft is what got him into the room, and the craft is what he keeps returning to.
(LucaFazPhoto / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0))The Co-Star Who Stole the Shoot
No account of Bailey’s reign would be complete without the photograph PEOPLE’s readers may remember best: the newly reflective former titleholder pictured with his dog, Benson. The image did what the best celebrity photography does — it punctured the glamour at exactly the right moment. Here was the Sexiest Man Alive, twelve months into the most image-conscious year of his life, upstaged entirely happily by his own pet.
Benson has form in this area. The dog has been a fan favourite throughout Bailey’s rise, and his appearance in the farewell feature felt like a signature: the actor who never quite lets the machinery of fame take itself too seriously, bringing his dog to the coronation’s closing ceremony.
Advice for the Next Man
So what does Bailey tell the man about to take his place? The spirit of his advice, offered as the announcement approaches, is warm and practical. The attention is intense and occasionally absurd; the jokes from friends will be relentless; strangers will have opinions. His counsel, in essence, is to treat the whole thing as the compliment it is — to laugh, to show up, to let the year be enjoyable rather than overwhelming, and to remember that the title says something kind about how audiences feel, which is never something to be embarrassed about.
There is also, threaded through his reflections, a quieter reassurance: the crown is temporary, but what it amplifies does not have to be. Bailey used his twelve months to open doors — to bigger films, global brands and passion projects alike. His successor, whoever he is, will get the same offer. The wisest advice the outgoing titleholder can give is simply to spend the year on work that will still matter when the next handover comes around.
(British Library Board / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain))The Crown Passes
Within days, a new name will be announced, a new cover will land, and the cycle of teasing, covers and campaigns will begin again for somebody else. Bailey will return to the comparatively quiet life of an actor with a blockbuster franchise, a shelf of stage awards and a dog who remains unimpressed by all of it.
By every measure, his was a model reign: commercially enormous, critically respectable and conducted throughout with visible good humour. The Sexiest Man Alive title has had many holders; few have worn it quite so lightly — or handed it on quite so graciously.