From Our Editor-in-Chief: It's Not Over Yet! Buckle Up for the Sexiest Week Alive
- - From Our Editor-in-Chief: It's Not Over Yet! Buckle Up for the Sexiest Week Alive
Charlotte TriggsNovember 6, 2025 at 7:02 AM
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Charlotte Triggs, editor-in-chief and general manager; Jonathan Bailey's 2025 Sexiest Man Alive cover
Fun fact: Sexiest Man Alive was created by accident. In 1985, the magazine sent a photographer and a reporter halfway around the world to the Australian set of Mad Max to interview a then 29-year-old Mel Gibson for a cover story.
The pictures turned out great. The interview? Not so much. Mel told the writer, “I don’t want to be doing this interview,” (a quote we actually ended up running because we were savage back then!).The team debated various solutions — even killing the story — before the late Mary Dunne, a photo editor, suggested running the pictures and just calling him “the sexiest man alive.”
“We were laughing and we said, ‘Can we do that?’ Who are we to make that pronouncement?’ " recalls Cutler Durkee, who was a senior editor at the time. “The more we thought about it, we thought, ‘What the heck? Let’s try it!’ "
Mel Gibson's 1985 Sexiest Man Alive cover
With that, Sexiest Man Alive (or SMA as we call it) entered the pop culture chat. For the first eight years, “there was no set date for Sexiest Man Alive. When a hot star was suddenly in the zeitgeist, People just named him SMA,” says Liz Sporkin, who ran the franchise for many years.
It ran as a cover story, nothing more and the stars didn’t really cooperate back then, according to Sporkin: “Reps would say ‘no’ with kind of a wink wink and when we said we were going ahead with it anyway, they would give us a list of approved friends to talk to, and professional photos would mysteriously arrive at the office.”
That’s not to say we’ve nailed it every year. In 1993, we named Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere the Sexiest Couple Alive. The couple divorced a year later and we never did a duo again.
And then there was 1994, when the editors didn’t think anyone was sexy enough for the honor — not Keanu Reeves who was in his Speed era or Hugh Grant who just had his breakout role in Four Weddings and a Funeral — so we simply skipped it altogether.
George Clooney's 1997 Sexiest Man Alive cover
SMA returned in 1995 with none other than Brad Pitt, but it was George Clooney whose November 1997 cover, which he later playfully mentioned in his Oscars speech, officially made it a yearly tradition you could circle on the calendar.
Speaking of timing, that’s a key element we look at when selecting our guy.
“It’s all about catching the wave,” says former editor-in-chief Larry Hackett (2006 to 2014), who calls Matthew McConaughey his favorite of his own SMA covers.
“He was rising but people hadn't noticed it yet. We saw the wave coming into the shore and we caught it at the right moment,” he says. “He looked great, he looked rugged. It was a great interview.”
Matthew McConaughey's 2005 Sexiest Man Alive cover
Jess Cagle, who was the editor-in-chief of PEOPLE from 2014 to 2019, says “the hard part about choosing SMA is finding someone with just the right combo of mass appeal (but not predictable) and sex appeal (but not cheesy).” His favorite personal choice for the cover? Idris Elba in 2018.
“I knew he was the right choice because everyone on staff agreed (which never happens) and the audience universally approved (which hardly ever happens),” he says. “The big argument internally was over which picture to use on the cover. Muscle-baring tank top or avuncular, chunky knit sweater? We chose the sweater. Because any guy who can look that sexy in a chunky knit really is … Sexiest Man Alive.”
David Burton Idris Elba's 2018 Sexiest Man Alive cover
I took the helm at PEOPLE earlier this year — just in time for Sexiest Man Alive’s 40th anniversary (the traditional gift is a ruby, hence all the red you see across our channels right now). I figured there was no better way to celebrate the franchise than with at least one shirtless shoot.
When I relayed my vision to our director of photography, Ilana Schweber, she responded, “I can’t guarantee that.” Spoiler alert: She overdelivered.
Charlotte Triggs and Jonathan Bailey
I couldn’t be more delighted with our cover star, Jonathan Bailey. Yes, he’s got the classic looks of a Prince Charming, but he’s also sweet, funny, and incredibly hard-working. After a long day of shooting in the south of England, he dove into the frigid water at sunset to get the gorgeous image you’ll see in his cover story.
Julie Jordan, editor at large, Jonathan Bailey and Charlotte Triggs
We shot another English gentleman who knows what it takes to get the perfect photo — Aaron Pierre— at an estate in Essex. It was a chilly fall day, and while we were bundled up and sipping tea, Aaron gamely posed in just a T-shirt.
“He brought the heat,” says Schweber. Indeed. Even the estate’s mini Shetland ponies couldn’t take their eyes off him.
Aaron Pierre and Charlotte Triggs
Speaking of hot, I headed to Los Angeles to shoot PEOPLE’s first-ever centerfold with Role Model (real name: Tucker Pillsbury) sponsored by MAC Cosmetics. In the grand tradition of Burt Reynolds before him, Tucker stripped down (to his boxers—but you wouldn’t know it from the pictures!).
“He put the ‘model’ in Role Model. The man knows his angles!” says senior writer Rachel DeSantis.
Rachel DeSantis, senior writer, Role Model and Charlotte Triggs
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for our anniversary celebration, which I’ve been calling the “Sexiest Week Alive.” You can also get insider info on the making of the cover shoot and behind-the-scenes secrets from our shoots with Aaron Pierre and Role Model on the People App and our social channels. (Plus, you can make your own Sexiest Man Alive cover using our special SMA filter on Instagram.)
And tune in for new episodes of Pop Take featuring executive director of special integrated projects Andrea Lavinthal and former executive editor Liz Sporkin dishing the dirt on 40 years of our sexy men.
All week we’ll be heating things up across the PEOPLE universe and beyond. Warning: Things are about to get steamy.
Thanks for reading, clicking and watching!
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
