Cat Missal has confirmed she’s gay, speaking candidly about her personal life while discussing the season three finale of Hulu’s Tell Me Lies.
Missal, 26 — sometimes credited as Catherine Missal and listing she/they pronouns on social media — spoke with Teen Vogue alongside her partner, Jess Panneton. Their conversation came as the show’s third season wrapped with a finale that aired on 17 February, an episode that has already sparked conversation about toxic relationships, secrecy and the fallout among friends.
A personal milestone
Missal described the moment as meaningful both professionally and personally. Playing Bree, a character entangled in the show’s corrosive social dynamics, has been intense; off-screen, Missal said she finds relief in living a different reality. Panneton joined the chat with a warm, joking reassurance, and the pair’s easy chemistry is visible: they live together in the San Fernando Valley with their cats, Chicken and Bunny, and have been photographed together at premieres and industry events. They first met at a West Hollywood drag show where Missal was with her siblings — a meeting that sparked a quick connection and eventually a public relationship.
Tell Me Lies finale — what happened
Season three closes on a tightly wound finale that folds timelines together and forces the core friend group to face past betrayals. Much of the episode centers on Bree and Evan’s wedding, shown in a 2015 flash-forward, where old secrets come crashing into the open. The biggest reveal: Bree leaked an embarrassing tape of Lucy from their college years, a betrayal that reframes past alliances and deepens the show’s moral complications.
The episode leans into the idea that private harms have long, messy consequences. At the wedding, multiple private truths are exposed — including a late confession of an affair — and the fallout fractures loyalties, leaving relationships in an uncertain place. The final moments, with Lucy stepping away and Stephen driving off, are deliberately ambiguous: an ending, sure, but one that hints at whatever might come next.
Creators and cast on accountability, not neat endings
Writers, cast and creators have said the aim was to avoid tidy resolutions. Meaghan Oppenheimer and others described the finale as a moral reckoning rather than a tidy plot payoff. Grace Van Patten said the ending gives Lucy a kind of release from the pattern that’s haunted her; Jackson White called the choice a fitting close for the characters’ arcs. Production notes also highlighted how the staging — lingering on small gestures and silences — keeps the focus on the emotional reality of the moment rather than on spectacle.
Where to watch
Tell Me Lies is available to stream on Hulu, and in the U.K. on Disney+ and BBC iPlayer for anyone wanting to revisit the episodes and draw their own conclusions about who gets held accountable and who doesn’t.
A quieter, public life
Missal and Panneton’s relationship adds a softer counterpoint to the show’s on-screen turmoil. Their openness about being together while keeping much of their life private reflects a growing desire among actors to separate art from personal identity — and to let audiences engage with both on their own terms.