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How to watch and read the Bridget Jones movies & books in release and chronological order

Everything you ever wanted to know about reading and watching Bridget Jones

Guides by Joshua Lapin-Bertone, Contributing writer

Published on Mon Dec 23 2024

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Bridget Jones has an odd relationship with luck. At times she feels like she’s hit the jackpot, and other times she feels like life’s chew toy.

Bridget Jones is a middle-aged single woman trying to navigate her career and love life. She may not be as glamorous or sophisticated as she wishes she was, but that’s why we love her. Bridget Jones is the everywoman, a Charlie Brown for the middle-aged. Things can’t seem to go her way, but she never stops trying.

Bridget Jones began life as a character in an Independent column before creator Helen Fielding made her the focus of a series of novels. The books grew in popularity, and it wasn’t long before Bridget made her way to the big screen, where Renee Zellweger brought the loveable singleton to life.

If you’ve ever wanted to get to know Bridget, but weren’t sure where to start, Popverse has you covered. This guide will tell you everything you need to know about watching and reading Bridget Jones

How to watch Bridget Jones in order

There are currently three Bridget Jones movies, with a fourth on the way. Since none of them are numbered, you might be unsure about what the correct order is. Just use the following watch order, and you’ll be all set. Don’t stress the chronological order either, because the films have a linear timeline. In other words, there are no prequels, and the chronological order is the same as the release order.

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

How to read Bridget Jones in order

Before she hit the big screen, Bridget Jones was a literary character. Helen Fielding originally created the character for a column in the Independent. Fielding would write each column as the fictitious Bridget Jones, chronicling her trials and tribulations as a single woman in London. The popularity of the column led to Fielding writing three Bridget Jones novels. If you want to read Fielding’s Bridget Jones novels in order, here’s how to do it…

Do Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy get together?

Warning – this section of the guide contains spoilers for…well….every Bridget Jones movie. If you’re rooting for Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy to get together, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is Bridget and Mark get together. The bad news is they have trouble staying together, and Mark eventually dies.

The first three films end with Bridget and Mark overcoming their personal conflicts and getting together. However, Bridget and Mark are broken up by the beginning of the next film. They reconcile during the final act…and the cycle repeats itself. Well, it did until Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

Bridget Jones’s Baby ends with Bridget and Mark finally getting married, seemingly putting an end to their on-again, off-again cycle. However, the trailer for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy reveals that Mark died between films. This leaves Bridget as a widow raising two young children.

Who is the father of Bridget Jones’s baby?

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably watching Bridget Jones’s Baby, and you wanted to look up the answer. If that’s the case, consider this your spoiler warning.

Mark Darcy is the father of Bridget Jones’s baby. However, we don’t learn this until the final scene of Bridget Jones’s Baby. The film begins with Bridget having a one night stand with Jack Qwant, a mathematician who operates a matchmaking website. Shortly thereafter, Bridget has a night of passion with her ex-fiance Mark Darcy, before leaving him once more.

Weeks later, Bridget learns she’s pregnant and is unsure of who the father is. Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver was absent from this film, so he wasn’t a suspect. Although Bridget has the option of doing a prenatal DNA test, she fears it might hurt the baby, so she decides to wait until after the birth.

Throughout the pregnancy, Jack and Mark compete for Bridget’s affections. Bridget decides it’s Mark she loves, regardless of if he’s the father or not. After Bridget gives birth, we get a one year later time jump to Bridget and Mark’s wedding. The film teases us about the identity of the father for a bit, showing Jack holding the baby.

However, Mark calls the baby, “his son,” revealing that the DNA tests confirmed him as the father. Despite this, Jack remained on good terms with Bridget and Mark, attending their wedding and playing with their baby.

What’s the connection between Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice?

Bridget Jones’s Diary isn’t an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but it’s heavily inspired by it. Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding was a big fan of the BBC’s 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice. She was drawn to the relationship between Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, and adapted elements of it into Bridget’s romance with Mark Darcy.

Fielding interviewed Colin Firth (who played Fitzwilliam Darcy in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice) in character as Bridget. The interview appears in Fielding’s 1999 novel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. When Bridget Jones was adapted for the big screen, Colin Firth was cast as Mark Darcy, giving the film a bit of a meta-joke. In interviews, Firth said that he considered Fitzmartin and Mark to be the same character and played him as such.

The scene where Bridget interviews Colin Firth wasn’t included in the film adaptation of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason for obvious reasons. However, Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth recreated the interview for a special feature on the film’s DVD.

What’s the age difference between Mark Darcy and Bridget Jones?

The age difference between Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy isn’t consistent. In Bridget Jones’s Diary, the script states that Mark is four years older than Bridget. However, Mark’s dating profile in Bridget Jones’s Baby states that he is seven years older than Bridget.

The likely scenario is that the dating profile is incorrect because Bridget lied about her age. This is backed up by the childhood home video we see during the end credits of Bridget Jones’s Diary. In the video, Mark and Bridget look to be about four years apart, rather than seven.

How much weight did Renee Zellweger gain for Bridget Jones’s Diary?

The Bridget Jones films contain a running bit where the title character struggles with diet and weight gain. Despite this running bit, Bridget Jones is nowhere near obese. This is a product of society’s obsession with weight, and the unfair standards Hollywood has towards women’s bodies.

In order to make Bridget Jones appear more like an average woman, Renee Zellweger gained 30 pounds for Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. For the third film, the producers told Zellweger she didn’t have to gain any weight, because they wanted to move beyond Jones’s obsession with weight, and the fat-shaming that went along with it.

Why was Hugh Grant not in Bridget Jones’s Baby?

Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver played a large role in the first two Bridget Jones films, making his absence in Bridget Jones’s Baby jarring. The film opens with Daniel Cleaver’s funeral, as we learn his character went missing in a plane crash. The final shot of the film is a newspaper article revealing that Cleaver was found alive and well. It was a fun way to include him in the film without using Hugh Grant, but it does beg the question of why he didn’t appear.

According to an interview with Bustle, Grant was originally going to appear in the film. In fact, he would’ve been Jones’s other potential baby father instead of Jack Qwant. “When they came to me a few years ago, they had a good central premise, but I didn’t think the script completely worked,” Grant said. “So, I worked with them on it for some time, almost a year, I think, and I could never make the second half of the film work, as far as I was concerned, especially for my character. So, in the end we sort of ran out of time, and I said, 'I think you should make it with someone else.'”

However, Hugh Grant will be back for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

Whatever happened to the Bridget Jones musical?

A Bridget Jones stage musical has been in development since 2009, but it has had difficulty getting off the ground. The play would’ve been an adaptation of Bridget Jones’s Diary, complete with original songs. The music was written by Lily Allen, Greg Kurstin, and Karen Poole. Early workshop performances were held in 2010, with Sheridan Smith as Bridget.

However, a full performance of the show never materialized, and the cast and crew moved on to other projects. In 2024 Lily Allen said that the songs were good, and she believes that one day the show will be resurrected. Perhaps the movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy will resurrect interest in the franchise, causing the musical to be revived.

Where can I watch Bridget Jones?

If you want to watch Bridget Jones, then you’re going to need a Max subscription. The streaming service is the current home for the first three Bridget Jones films. If you have a Max membership, then you’re good to go and there are no extra fees to pay.

The upcoming film Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy will premiere on Peacock on February 13, 2025. While the NBCUniversal streaming service has a free membership tier, it’s likely that you will need one of their paid memberships to watch the film.

Please note, the availability of some of these films might change as streaming licenses expire.

Now you have everything you need to enjoy Bridget Jones and her wacky singleton adventures!

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Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.