Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek and Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in season 4 of ‘Bridgerton.’ (Liam Daniel/Netflix)
(SPOILER ALERT) Congratulations are in order for the second Bridgerton son, Benedict, and his bride, Sophie Baek.
The couple, portrayed by Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha, were married in an end credits scene after the final episode of Netflix’s Bridgerton season 4.
Benedict and Sophie returned to My Cottage for their nuptials, which was an intimate ceremony that included their family and closest friends. Ha spoke to ABC Audio about what it was like to bring such a special scene to life.
“It was so beautiful to go back to the My Cottage where we started [and] finish there,” Ha said.
She continued, saying “everyone that we hoped to be there” was in attendance, including Mr. and Mrs. Crabtree, (Billy Boyle and Susan Brown) the housekeepers at Benedict’s Wiltshire home, who helped nurture the beginnings of their relationship.
Ha said she developed quite a fondness for the dress Sophie wore on her wedding day. So much, in fact, she thought about incorporating it in her own future wedding.
“It was funny, because when you put on a wedding dress, you’re like, ‘I should put this on for my real life,'” Ha said.
While it was not an actual wedding, Ha said she forgot that fact while filming.
“It felt like a wedding,” Ha said, especially the part where she had “to walk down that aisle very slowly.”
Ha said the crew even got into the celebratory spirit on set that day.
“It felt like at that moment, it was a pure celebration of our story, our season, with everyone all there,” Ha said. “Even the crew were told to wear non-crew clothing and everyone actually dressed up like they were part of the wedding as well. It was a beautiful day.”
Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Feb. 20, 2026. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has “agreed to appear voluntarily” before the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Committee Chairman James Comer announced Tuesday.
“I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee. I look forward to his testimony,” Comer said in a post on X.
Comer did not specify when the secretary’s appearance will occur.
Lutnick, who lived next door to Epstein for over a decade, previously suggested he had distanced himself from Epstein back in the mid-2000s prior to Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
“So, I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross,” Lutnick said on the “Pod Force One” podcast in October.
The commerce secretary was grilled on Capitol Hill during an appearance last month before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee about his past denial following revelations that the two men remained in contact years after Lutnick suggested he had distanced himself from the convicted sex offender.
In his appearance before the appropriations subcommittee, Lutnick was asked repeatedly about his correspondence with Epstein, detailed in files recently released by the Justice Department, in which it was revealed that he visited Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2012 with his family and others.
Lutnick has denied any wrongdoing.
Tuesday’s announcement from Comer came a day after the House Oversight Committee released video of the appearances of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the committee last week.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump, joined by first lady Melania Trump, signs the Fostering the Future executive order in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 13, 2025. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is urging states to stop removing children from their homes over gender-identity disputes at the behest of child welfare agencies without their parents’ approval.
In a letter first obtained by ABC News, the Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) reminds state child welfare agencies that under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), they are barred from removing children from their home because a parent doesn’t agree with the child’s gender identity.
“When states overstep their bounds, ACF will take action to deter inappropriate policies that drive unnecessary interactions with child welfare systems. This is one such example,” ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams wrote in a statement Tuesday.
The Trump administration cited multiple examples — from Illinois to California — where children who may reject the sex they were assigned at birth and perceive themselves as a different gender were removed from their homes without parental consent and placed in the child welfare system.
However, Shannon Minter, vice president of legal at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR), told ABC News that he is not aware of any state removing children from parents based on their response to a transgender child.
Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Minter called the effort a broader push by the Trump administration to “eliminate” all protections for transgender young people.
“No one is advocating for removing children because a parent is struggling to understand,” he said, adding, “But child welfare professionals need the discretion to assess when rejection crosses the line into real harm — the same way they would for any other child.”
Morissa Ladinsky, a clinical professor in pediatrics at Stanford University in California, argued that children aren’t typically removed from their home without parental consent in this fashion.
“My experience tells me that there is likely more to the story,” Ladinsky told ABC News, adding that she has not seen removal over gender disputes fall under the domain of Child Protective Services.
As the division of HHS that promotes welfare assistance and supports the economic and social well-being of children and families, the agency has said ACF’s duty is to protect families and keep them together. ACF’s letter also stressed that parents hold the right to refuse removal according to their religious beliefs and moral convictions around gender identity.
The letter said breaking the law could violate the First Amendment and states could risk losing federal grant funding under CAPTA.
“What we’re doing with this letter is we’re putting states on notice,” Adams told ABC News.
“When policies are either increasing the number of kids committed to the system inappropriately or they’re deterring foster families from stepping up, I do think there was a role for ACF to weigh in,” he said, adding, “It does merit federal action.”
The letter to states bolsters an initiative to protect children from the foster-care system amid a shortage of facilities nationwide with only 57 foster homes for every 100 vulnerable kids coming into the system, according to Adams.
The letter comes at the directive of President Donald Trump’s Fostering the Future for American Children and Families executive order and follows the president’s call during his State of the Union address last week for a federal ban on gender transitions for minors.
“Surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” Trump said during his address. “We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.”
Gender identity is described as how a child perceives and calls themself, which can be the same or different from the sex that was assigned to them at birth, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
However, if a child sees themself as different than the sex assigned at birth, parents have the right to reject this self-identification, the ACF letter says. Under federal law, CAPTA states that a child may not be removed from the home without proof of “abuse” or “imminent risk of harm.”
The Trump administration has stated that restoring power to parents is one of its top health, education and humanities priorities. But the letter warns that states are usurping parental rights and potentially misinterpreting the CAPTA law if they remove children from their homes without evidence of “abuse or neglect.”
Under ACF, the health department’s human services division administers the largest federal child care program and other federal services that helps millions of households nationwide.
Prior to ACF’s letter to states, lawmakers have taken several child care-related actions against the nation’s health agency under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a previous letter to Kennedy first reported by ABC News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other congressional Democrats said the agency’s alleged “disregard” for child welfare undermines the government’s core child-protection obligations amid federal immigration crackdowns.
Adams stressed Tuesday’s letter is supported by the whole organization, including Kennedy, and the secretary has demonstrated his commitment to improving child welfare outcomes across several different domains.
US President Donald Trump arrives for a medal of honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 2, 2026. President Trump is awarding the Medal of Honor to three US Army soldiers. (Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied that Israel forced his hand into attacking Iran, and in another new explanation, said he ordered the U.S. strike on Iran because he concluded Tehran was going to attack the U.S. first after negotiations stalled.
Trump also acknowledged most of the individuals the U.S. favored to next lead in Tehran have been killed, including some in a new strike on Tuesday.
Hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, Trump for the first time took questions in public on the war, now in its fourth day and expanding throughout the Middle East.
Amid scrutiny over why the U.S. military campaign against Iran was necessary, and mixed messages from the administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the strikes were triggered in part because the U.S. knew Israel was going to attack Iran and Iran would retaliate.
“Did [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu pull the United States into this war?” ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump on Tuesday.
“No. I might have forced their hand,” Trump replied. “You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”
“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready and we were ready,” Trump continued, appearing to contradict Rubio.
Rubio also told reporters Monday that, despite his comments, Israel didn’t force Trump’s hand. House Speaker Mike Johnson, after a Gang of 8 briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday, said Israel was determined to act “with or without the U.S.”
Trump did not provide evidence for why his administration believed Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. Previously, American intelligence agencies had found Iran would not have had missiles capable of reaching the U.S. for another nine years, until 2035.
Trump said most of Iran’s military infrastructure, including its navy and air force, has been “knocked out.”
“We’re hitting them very hard,” Trump said, later adding: “They’re going to be in for a lot of hurt.”
On what’s next for Iran and who America would like to see take over, Trump admitted most of the individuals identified to potentially replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have also been killed.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead … And now we have another group, they may be dead also based on reports,” Trump said. “So, I guess you have a third wave coming in pretty soon. We’re not going to know anybody.”
“I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person,” Trump said. “That could happen.”
Trump also poured cold water on the idea of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran, being an option to lead the country.
“Some people like him, and we haven’t been thinking about too much about that. It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said. “I’ve said that he looks like a very nice person. but it would seem to me that somebody that’s there that’s currently popular if there is such a person.”
Meanwhile, the war is widening in the Middle East as Iran seeks retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli attacks. Tehran has struck nearly a dozen countries in the region, which Trump said he was “surprised” by.
“They hit countries that had nothing to do with what’s going on,” Trump said, criticizing Iran for striking civilian infrastructure like hotels.
The State Department has warned U.S. citizens to leave the region and closed several embassies. So far, six U.S. service members have died in the war and more have been wounded, according to U.S. officials.
ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers pressed Trump on the Americans who are currently stranded in the Middle East and why there wasn’t an evacuation plan to get them out. The president said because it “happened all very quickly.”
“I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others,” he said.
The State Department later said it was working on securing military aircraft and charter flights for Americans who want to evacuate.
As for further impacts on Americans, Trump said oil prices could likely rise temporarily as the conflict plays out.
“People felt that it’s something that had to be done. So, if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.
In the Oval Office, President Trump also notably took aim at several European allies who he said have not supported his administration’s strikes on Iran.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said as he rebuked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially not letting U.S. aircraft to use the Diego Garcia base that the U.K. controls.
Trump also threatened to cut off all trade with Spain after the country said the U.S. cannot use its joint military bases for operations against Iran.
Germany’s Merz said he would speak with Trump about the “day after” in Iran.
“We are on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away,” Merz said.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that it is “too late” for talks with Iran and warned the U.S. has enough weapons to fight “forever.”
“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies,” Trump wrote in a social media post, despite having said on Monday that the U.S. would “easily prevail” in the conflict and campaigning in opposition to prolonged foreign entanglements.
The president has said the war with Iran could last for several weeks.
ABC News’ Karen Travers contributed to this report.
Keke Palmer attends the 57th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 28, 2026, in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/WireImage)
Keke Palmer is back with a third season of her podcast, Baby, this is Keke Palmer, and this go round, “she’s not afraid to dig into the hot takes and the topics that we’re all dying to understand,” a press release states.
“This season feels different, not because the conversations are louder but because they’re deeper. This show has never been about gotcha moments. This season we are choosing curiosity over certainty, context over chaos, conversation over combat,” Keke adds in a video shared to socials. “I’m not here to speak for my guests, and I’m not here to speak over them either. I’m here to ask the questions that let you see for yourself because culture isn’t a headline, it’s a reflection, and this show, it’s the mirror. So let’s get into it.”
The first episode, out now, features Demi Lovato, with future guests including Nia Long, Niecy Nash-Betts, Coi Leray, Ella Mai, Mya, Durand Bernarr and Robin Thede.
Twenty One Pilots at 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Disney/Cristian Lopez)
Twenty One Pilots are headlining the 2026 Oceans Calling festival, taking place Sept. 25-27 in Ocean City, Maryland.
The top of the lineup also features Mumford & Sons, Dave Matthews Band, Gwen Stefani, Matchbox Twenty and Hootie & the Blowfish.
Other artists on the bill include Yellowcard, My Morning Jacket, The Head and the Heart, All Time Low, Third Eye Blind, 311, Liz Phair, Goo Goo Dolls, Jet, OK Go, Violent Femmes, Everlast, Everclear and Dashboard Confessional.
You can sign up now for a presale happening Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. Any remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public on Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.
Justin Moore, Gavin Adcock and The Red Clay Strays will headline the Born & Raised Music Festival Sept. 17-19 in Pryor, Oklahoma. Tickets go on sale Wednesday.
Walker Montgomery has signed with Jay DeMarcus’ Red Street Records. The son of John Michael Montgomery and the nephew of Montgomery Gentry’s Eddie Montgomery, Walker’s debut single will be “Saving the Honky Tonks,” which comes out April 3.
The Band Loula’s new song, “Mother’s Mother,” will drop March 20.
Ella Langley’s current victory lap will continue later this month as she headlines a special Spotify South by Southwest concert.
The “Choosin’ Texas” hitmaker’s currently enjoying a second week atop Billboard‘s all-genre Hot 100, as the song returns three weeks after it initially hit #1.
She’ll play Spotify 20: Live at Stubb’s Saturday, March 14, in Austin, co-headlining with ’90s icon Alanis Morissette, who is famous for Jagged Little Pill hits like “You Oughta Know” and “Ironic.”
The show will also feature a DJ set by St. Vincent and will be open to SXSW platinum and music badge holders.
Rock singer Sebastian Bach performs at The Fonda Theatre on December 16, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
After being forced to cancel their planned reunion tour due to frontman Dee Snider’s health, the remaining members of Twisted Sister have found someone else to front the band.
Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda announced on Instagram that former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach will be taking over lead singer duties for “a handful of select dates this fall.” The post features a clip of Twisted Sister’s “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll,” which appears to feature Bach on vocals.
It also adds that the shows with Twisted Sister “do not affect or conflict with Sebastian’s current or future solo touring schedule, which remains fully intact.”
Dates for Twisted Sister with Sebastian Bach have not yet been announced.
The planned Twisted Sister reunion with Snider was supposed to kick off April 25 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. On Feb. 6, the band announced the tour cancelation “due to the sudden and unexpected resignation of Twisted Sister’s lead singer Dee Snider brought on by a series of health challenges.”
A statement released on behalf Snider said that a “lifetime of legendarily aggressive performing has taken its toll” on the singer, noting the 70-year-old suffered from degenerative arthritis and recently found out that “the level of intensity he has dedicated to his life’s work has taken its toll on his heart as well.”
Bach is currently on a solo tour and will play Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday. He has dates confirmed through Oct. 3 in Saint Charles, Missouri.
The Royal Mint’s 2026 Spice Girls £5 Commemorative Coin celebrating 30 years of Girl Power (Courtesy The Royal Mint)
If you want to own a special Spice Girls collectible, the British Royal Mint is here to give you what you really, really, really want.
The Mint is issuing a £5 coin in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the iconic group’s debut album, Spice, and their hit “Wannabe.” One side shows all five members of the group in silhouette, along with their autographs; King Charles III is on the flip side.
The coins come in five limited-edition packaging designs, all of which are limited to 15,000 coins worldwide. Each one showcases a different member, allowing fans to choose between Baby Spice, Ginger Spice, Posh Spice, Scary Spice and Sporty Spice.
On Instagram, Mel B, aka Scary Spice, writes, “Back then when we were just five misfit girls starting out We could never have imagined that this would happen to us – the FIRST female group to be given their very own coin…that really is GIRL POWER! My dad would be sooo proud!!!!”
In other Spice Girls news, Mel B will be one of the celebrities competing in the new Netflix seriesSquid Game: The VIP Challenge. As in the original Squid Game series, the VIPs are the ones who wear masks and watch as the contestants risk death to win millions.
