The Heated Rivalry Fantasy Was My Reality… And My Secret Hookup Will Soon Be Leading The Country

Argentine Olympian Nicolás ‘Nico’ Keenan was perplexed when his DMs suddenly blew up with messages from fans imploring him to watch HBO Max’s Heated Rivalry.

‘You remind me of Ilya (Rozanov),’ one of the messages read, referring to one of the hit series’ lead characters, a bisexual, Russian hockey player (played by Connor Storrie) in a secret gay relationship with his rival, Canadian professional Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams).

He tuned in and was amazed by all of the similarities to his real-life love story.

Keenan, 28, plays field hockey and is also bisexual.

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He’s been dating Rob Jetten, who is poised to become the youngest-ever and first openly gay prime minister of the Netherlandssince 2022. However, their family, friends and the public only learned of their relationship in 2023.

For an entire year, the lovers snuck around to conceal their feelings for one another as Keenan was still in the closet – much like the characters on Heated Rivalry.

‘Top performance sports are quite male-orientated and toxic,’ he said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail.

‘Our athletes, they are heroes. They don’t have problems, they’re perfect. They are fit, they are mentally strong – you don’t show any weakness.’

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Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Spain and Italy, Keenan always knew he liked men. But since he came from a long lineage of hockey players, including his father and grandparents, he kept quiet about his sexuality.

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‘I was starting to be quite good at the sports and suddenly I needed to decide,’ he said, noting that when he opened the door to becoming a pro athlete, he closed the door on revealing his attraction to men.

Keenan was then in a relationship with a woman for five years.

While competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he figured out how to ‘blend in’ by playing up his jock persona and brushing off homophobic jokes inside locker rooms.

‘Changing rooms is really the big heart of any group sports. We spend a lot of hours together,’ he explained, noting that the jabs sparked a ‘burning feeling inside.’

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‘I would love to shout it out right now, but I can’t,’ he added. ‘So, in my case, you just learn how to behave, to just be under the radar so no one notices you. You even stop suffering. You don’t mind any because it becomes part of your personality.’

However, that all changed when a handsome, dark-haired man caught his eye as they frequently bumped into each other at local coffee shops and supermarkets in the Netherlands. (Keenan plays for the Dutch club HC Klein Zwitserland.)

One day, the mysterious man sent Keenan a direct message on social media. It was Jetten.

‘It was a connection at first sight,’ Keenan told the Daily Mail. ‘We connected, and suddenly I had someone that could just talk, talk, talk (for hours).’

Jetten – unlike Keenan – was already openly gay at the time, but agreed to keep his romance with the field hockey star under wraps out of respect.

Keenan said he felt he could trust Jetten to keep their secret since he was already a ‘public figure’ and ‘knows how to handle these situations.’

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For months, Keenan, who shared a home with teammates, snuck out to Jetten’s house and made sure to return before everyone else was awake at 7 am.

His discretion sometimes went too far though, by his own admission.

After playing well in a game, a proud Jetten left a comment on Keenan’s Instagram post, but the pro athlete demanded he remove it.

Keenan said the politician obliged.

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Now, reflecting on that text, Keenan said he ‘felt immediately super bad.’

It was becoming clear that Jetten, now 38, was growing tired of their situation. One night, the politician told his partner that he would like them to grab breakfast together in the morning.

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Like Heated Rivalry characters Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie Graham-Kuntz), most of their relationship up until that point had taken place behind closed doors.

‘That night I didn’t sleep the whole night,’ Keenan told the Daily Mail. ‘I was really nervous to cross someone in the neighborhood because we lived there.’

Much like he predicted, they did bump into acquaintances. However, Keenan said he was able to detach himself from Jetten just in time and played it cool.

‘I freaked out, and then the two people (were) like, ‘Oh, that is Rob Jetten?’ I was like, ‘Who?” Keenan recalled.

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‘I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know, whatever.’ And then he kept on walking and I met him as his place again. And now saying it out loud, it sounds even worse.’

The incident forced the couple to talk about their future together. Jetten even stopped talking to Keenan for a bit, but – much like Scott and Kip – the two reconnected.

Still closeted, Keenan knew he could not keep hiding who he was for much longer.

‘I’m quite an open person, a social person, since I was a kid,’ Keenan said.

‘I like to talk to people and to make new friends, and suddenly with the years, I started noticing that that fire was just turning off. I was not myself. I really need to be myself.’

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He said, at that point, he was pleased with having made it to the Olympics once and didn’t care whether coming out meant he wouldn’t make it onto the team again.

He remembered thinking, ‘it doesn’t matter if I don’t make it to the next one, but I will get sick (holding this in).’

As their relationship progressed, Keenan and Jetten decided to go on a romantic getaway to a cabin in the middle of the woods. They hiked, swam and snuggled by the fireplace.

One night, while sitting on a couch, the couple took a sweet picture together.

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‘Oh, we are so cute. This will look lovely on my (Instagram) story,’ Jetten said.

After looking into Jetten’s ‘big’ and ‘shiny’ eyes, Keenan said, ‘Yeah, post it. It’s fine.’

‘We didn’t put any text,’ he said. ‘Then we went to bed and I (thought), ‘OK, I have no control over it. This is the moment that the world will know. I’m with the person that I think it’s worth it not to hide any .”

The next morning, the two awoke to dozens of notifications from gossip sites reporting on their romance along with messages from family and friends.

The post – like Scott’s romantic gesture toward Kip at Heated Rivalry’s championship game – was a huge weight finally lifted off of Keenan’s shoulders.

‘I was surprised by the impact of the picture, the impact in my life,’ Keenan said.

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Although most of the response has been overwhelmingly supportive and positive, Keenan shared that there has been some questionable behavior from past coaches.

Since his love story garnered media attention, he began getting feedback that he was ‘losing focus.’

‘Sometimes I felt like, ‘OK, what bothers you?” Keenan wondered. ‘(That) I’m not focused or the topic I’m talking about?’

Still, any noise hasn’t held him back, as Keenan once again qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He and Jetten also got engaged in November of that year.

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‘It’s the kind of love I didn’t experience before,’ Keenan told the Daily Mail.

Reflecting on why Heated Rivalry has resonated with audiences – including heterosexual men and women – Keenan said it is because it allows for men’s love stories to truly be told.

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‘(It) was not just about the sex scenes. Gay love in sports… it’s a topic that is not touched… in shows,’ he said.

‘You need visibility. Seeing that this could be your teammate, your neighbor, your classmate… it helps everyone to be a little bit considerate. I think if it helps a generation feel less lonely, I think they’re doing everything right then with the show.’