Carly Rae Jepsen has confirmed she named her newborn son after a character from the hit hockey romance series “Heated Rivalry.”
The “Call Me Maybe” singer, 40, welcomed baby Ilya in March with husband Cole M.G.N., 41, and revealed the inspiration behind the name in a Hollywood Reporter interview published Tuesday. The couple tied in October 2025 at the Chelsea Hotel’s Bard Room in an intimate ceremony officiated by Jepsen’s aunt and uncle. The singer and the music producer, whose full name is Cole Marsden Greif-Neill, have been together since 2022.
“It was an incredible show,” Jepsen told the outlet of the Crave series. “Ilya is the name of my son. Maybe, not maybe because of that show.”
The character Ilya is played by Storrie in the show, which debuted in November 2025 and quickly became a surprise phenomenon. Based on Rachel Reid’s books, the series follows the secret romance between two professional hockey players that unfolds across years. Hudson Williams co-stars as Shane Hollander, and Francois Arnaud appears as Scott Hunter.
Jepsen also expressed enthusiasm about potentially contributing music to the show’s future. She called it a “dream” to pen a song for Season 2, a possibility first floated when “Heated Rivalry” director and fellow Canadian Jacob Tierney said on the “What Chaos!” podcast that he wanted to ask her to write an original song.
The series has cultivated an intense fandom that has at times turned toxic. In March, Williams and Arnaud pushed back against harassing behavior in a shared Instagram Story post after Arnaud faced online abuse when he was briefly linked romantically to Storrie off-screen.
“Don’t call yourself a fan if you share racist/homophobic/biphobic/misogynistic/ageist/ableist/parasocial/bigoted comments of any kind. None of us need your hateful ‘love,'” they wrote.
“We all respect and support and love each other and are on the same side if you can’t accept that gtfoh,” the message continued.
Production on Season 2 is currently underway in Toronto, where Storrie was recently spotted working out at the Shangri-la hotel accompanied by four security guards. The new season is slated for release in April 2027.
The show’s breakout success has dramatically raised its stars’ profiles. Toronto social columnist Shinan Govani said Hollywood that “a year ago, or even at last year’s TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival], few would have been able to pick Connor or his co-star Hudson Williams out of a police line up.”
“But the fervor over ‘Heated Rivalry,’ which is in the midst of shooting its second season now in the city, has caused so much pandemonium and neck-turning, it’s hard to believe anyone at the film festival will be able to compete,” Govani added. “They kinda own TIFF this year.”
