Season 2 of The Sex Lives of College Girls has finally debuted on HBO Max. The show follows, well, the sex lives of a group of friends in college, just like the title suggests. We all know how muddled sex and relationships can be in college, and the show shines light on the reality that many women endure when first heading off to school. Season 1 followed the stories of best friends Kimberly, Leighton, Bela, and Whitney. However, after Season 2 premiered, fans noticed one key character (who happened to be Kimberly’s Season 1 love interest) had disappeared from the plot altogether. So, what exactly happened to Nico in The Sex Lives of College Girls? Spoiler warning: Spoilers for The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 1 follow.
Nico, played by Gavin Leatherwood, had an integral part in the original plot of The Sex lives of College Girls. No, seriously: Not only was he main character Kimberly’s love interest, but he was also Leighton’s older brother. We’ve all been there, right? Sometimes our best friends and brothers are irresistible.
In Season 1, Kimberly’s scholarship to Essex College was put in jeopardy when she got caught cheating on a test. How did she cheat on said test? Well, Nico is a fraternity boy (yawn), and their band of brothers secretly held the answer keys to every single test at Essex College. Yes, that sounds a little outlandish, but it’s really the plot. Kimberly finds her Econ class to be extremely difficult, and she decides to cheat on an exam, and when she gets caught, she fesses up about the whole experience to her school board.
Her scholarship is taken away, and by the end of Season 1, we end up learning that Nico was expelled from their university. That’s really all the context that we get about Nico’s departure from the show on-screen. However, it’s been reported that Leatherwood actually quit the series. In an interview with Us Weekly in March 2022, he chatted about the show, saying, “There is [going to be] a Season 2, but I’m not going to go back.”
He went on to explain that he enjoyed being a part of Season 1, but that he was going to be “branching off and going in a different direction.” Phew, it sounds like Leatherwood might have just been a little bit too booked and busy to continue his role as Nico in The Sex Lives of College Girls. He has been releasing music throughout the year, so it’s safe to say that maybe Leatherwood is putting his time and energy into that side of his career at the moment!