François Arnaud unfollows Heated Rivalry cast — fans react

François Arnaud has stopped following the cast of "Heated Rivalry" and other members associated with the popular drama—including fellow actors Hudson Williams, Robbie G.K., and Connor Storrie.

The 40-year-old actor also removed series creator Jacob Tierney from his social media following list, reducing the number of accounts he follows from over 1,000 to just 213 in the past seven days, according to Just Jared.

Arnaud is reportedly facing threats online after being spotted departing from JFK airport with Storrie, 25, after their promotional week in New York City, igniting rumours of a romance — with some fans thinking Storrie would be more suited with Williams, 24.

People took to X to discuss the growing social media controversy.

“François Arnaud has unfollowed everyone involved with Heated Rivalry on Instagram including the whole cast and creator Jacob Tierney Nasty comments and online harassment seem to have caused François to limit his online presence,” one individual commented.

Another mentioned, “They need to leave this gentle king alone.”

“The comments and harassment is horrible and unjustified, but I don’t get unfollowing his cast members?” another person wondered.

Others expressed concern that this apparent discord might impact Arnaud's involvement in Season 2 of the series.

“If François Arnaud is not in season 2 of HEATED Rivalry due to toxic fans, I'm going to lose my mind!” an X user expressed.

“Saying françois isn’t helping by unfollowing any accounts related to the show. HE IS GETTING DEATH THREATS,” another individual pointed out.

“THE QUEER MAN ON THIS SHOW IS GETTING DEATH THREATS. & you think he’s just being ‘messy’ and ‘asking for attention’ this fandom is full of people who belong in padded rooms.”

Storrie and Hudson feature in the intense show as competing hockey athletes — and secret lovers — named Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, whereas Arnaud portrays Scott Hunter.

Arnaud acknowledged feeling overwhelmed by his growing social media presence following the success of "Heated Rivalry", even hinting at possibly closing his account entirely.

“Oh, Helen Hunt… who not only followed me and other guys from the show, also commented on an old post of me, an old post,” he shared during an appearance on the Sirius XM podcast “The Morning Mashup”.

“And she said, ‘You’re so good in this and everything else,’” the actor recounted.

“I was like, ‘Is she going through my whole filmography?’ Yeah, I had to, I’m like, ‘Oh delete Instagram now. I don’t need to see anything else.’ Shut the whole thing down.”

“This is how it should end,” he added. “This is my happy ending.”