Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp confirmed his boyfriend debut was an April Fool’s joke.
Schnapp, 21, took to Instagram on Wednesday, April 1, to seemingly celebrate his anniversary with a photo of himself and a mystery guy, writing, “One month of us.” He followed that up with another Instagram Story on Thursday, April 2, writing, “April fools.”
Before jokingly making his relationship Instagram official, Schnapp largely kept his personal life out of the spotlight. He publicly came out in January 2023 after his character on Stranger Things, Will Byers, was confirmed to be gay on season 4 of the hit Netflix show.
“When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know,’” Noah wrote via TikTok at the time while lip-synching the phrase, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, it will never be that serious.”
The actor later reflected on how Will helped him embrace his sexuality.
“Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed toward accepting it for myself,” Schnapp told Variety in August 2023. “I would be in a completely different place if I didn’t have Will to portray, and to embrace and help me accept myself.”
Schnapp said he “probably would still be closeted” if he “never played” Will. He credited the outpouring of “support” his character received for helping him not “worry about anything.”
“It kind of blew up in the press, and everyone was like, ‘Oh, Will’s gay! Hooray!’” he recalled. “I saw all these comments on Instagram and TikTok. There was not one bad thing about him being gay. I was like, ‘If he has all this support, then why should I worry about anything?’”
He continued: “I will be fully aware of who I am. Knowing all of that about myself and being able to invest that in my character, I’m honestly just excited.”
His costar and friend Millie Bobby Brown also applauded the show’s approach to Will’s story through the years. “Can I just say, it’s 2022 and we don’t have to label things. I think what’s really nice about Will’s character is that he’s just a human being going through his own personal demons and issues,” she shared during a joint interview with Variety. “So many kids out there don’t know, and that’s OK. That’s OK to not know. And that’s OK not to label things.”
She continued: “It’s such an amazing role for Noah to play. And to be that role model for kids out there who don’t know what they’re going through growing up.”
More recently, Schnapp recalled the years he spent being asked about his and Will’s sexualities before he was ready to publicly address either.
“When I was younger, I was obviously very scared of talking about it,” he told Time in October 2025. “They would pry and ask me, ‘Is he gay? Are you gay?’ I was 12, 13. I didn’t know what to say.”
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