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The Younger fan theory that even the cast now believe could be true.

Just a word of warning that this article contains spoilers for the TV show, Younger. 

For a show that’s meant to be about romance, career and ageism, Younger sure does deal a lot in conspiracy theories.

It’s probably thanks to the fact that the premise of the show itself is built on a tangled mess of lies and deceit.

Younger centres around Liza Miller (played by Sutton Foster) a divorced 41-year-old mother of one who has been posing as a 26-year-old in order to secure and hold down a job at the Manhattan-based Empirical Publishing.

While that secret has slowly been leaked out to other characters on the show over the last four seasons, it’s one that we the audience have always been in on from the very start. In fact, we are so used to being in the know when it comes to Younger secrets that now there seems to be some information hidden from our view, we just cannot handle it.

At the end of season four, Liza’s ex-boyfriend Josh (played by Nico Tortorella) followed his new lady love Clare (played by Phoebe Dynevor) all the way back to her hometown in Ireland and proceeded to become engaged to her, all so she could legally return to the US and they could be together.

Liza, being the good sport that she is, traveled to Ireland to be present at the wedding (and to become a witness for their Green Card application) and ended up spending the night with Josh the night before the vows were scheduled to take place.

Nico Tortorella as Josh and Sutton Foster as Liza in Younger. Source: Stan.
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It was that night that he told her that he still loved her and she woke the next morning expecting to hear the news that he'd spoken to Clare and called the whole wedding off... except she looked out the window to see the event in full swing and watched as Josh and Clare said "I do."

Now, Younger fans who are up-to-date on the show's current fifth season, which is airing now on Stan with new episodes dropping weekly, will know that Josh is back in New York and things with him and Clare have pretty much imploded.

But still, there is lingering suspicions about what ACTUALLY  happened on that wedding morning before the ceremony took place.

Here's the theory...

Josh went to see Clare in the morning after confessing his love to Liza the night before and tried to call the whole wedding off.

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But Clare, so desperate for a Green Card, told Josh that if he didn't go through with it she would tell everyone at Empirical Liza's true age and destroy her life and career forever. Since the marriage was a sham anyway, he decided to go through with it in order to protect Liza.

Remember that whole scene between Clare and Liza just before the wedding when Liza found out that Clare knew her secret? That wasn't just there to fill time.

But, yes, Josh's tears over Clare in the second episode of season five do point towards the fact that he's genuinely upset about how things ended between them....but some of those tears could be due to the ugly, threatening way it ended or the fact that he had genuinely tried to make it work in the end.

Relive the biggest moments and scandals from Younger season four, including an explanation of the blackmail theory, with special guest Miriam Shor, the actress who plays Diana Trout herself.

In order to get to the bottom of this truly important theory, Mamamia went straight to the source and spoke to the person who portrays Josh, 29-year-old actor Nico Tortorella.

Tortorella, who is openly sexually fluid and uses the pronoun 'they', listened carefully to the theory and then had some thoughts of their own.

"That’s kind of genius," they said, very slowly, after listening to the idea that the marriage could have been a result of blackmail and will affect future story-lines. 

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"I’m not mad about that, about you figuring that out I mean. And look, there’s a world in which that theory could actually still be the case after we finish shooting season five." 

Aside from confirming that this theory could still very much be in the mix, Tortorella confirmed that the ill-fated wedding from season four will have long-lasting consequences for all of our favourite characters.

"We now have to deal with the repercussions of what his marriage means for the world of Younger and for the relationships he has with Liza, Kelsey and Maggie," they said.

"For so long, Josh has just been putting all of his energy into other people and romantic relationships and now that he’s married he’s really locked down. So he now has more time to focus on himself. It will still be a bumpy road for Josh this season for sure, and things just get more confusing for him.

"But I would have to say that I’ve been most disappointed in Josh as a character for marrying Clare. I think he was really reaching on that one. Josh has a hard time taking care of himself and he keeps trying to cover this wound he has."

Only time will tell if this theory is true, but I'm sure that die-hard "Team Josh" fans are hoping it will be the catalyst that leads to him and Liza getting back together.

Younger is airing exclusively on Stan with new episodes dropping weekly, on the same day as the U.S. 

For more stories like this, you can follow writer and Mamamia Entertainment Editor Laura Brodnik on Facebook.