Nathaniel Fitzwilliam Archibald is a character in the best selling ''Gossip Girl'' book series. He is portrayed by

Chace Crawford Christopher Chace Crawford (born July 18, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his television portrayals of Nate Archibald on The CW's teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012), and of The Deep in Amazon Prime Video original series ...

in the television series of the same name. In the novels, he is considered the primary male character, always being fought over by the two most prominent females,

Blair Waldorf Blair Cornelia Waldorf (married name Bass) is one of the main characters of ''Gossip Girl'', introduced in the original series of novels and also appearing as the lead in the television adaptation; she also appears in the comic adaptation. Descri ...

and

Serena van der Woodsen Serena Celia van der Woodsen is the fictional character and the protagonist in the ''Gossip Girl'' novel series and in its TV adaptation, in which she is portrayed by Blake Lively. Serena is featured on the blog of the series' mysterious narrato ...

Novel series

Nate Archibald is a

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player at the elite St. Jude's School for Boys. His mother, Anne Archibald, is a French

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

, and his father, Captain Archibald, is a former

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

captain and a wealthy

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

. His closest friends are

Chuck Bass Charles Bartholomew Bass is a fictional character in the novel and television series '' Gossip Girl''. In the TV series, he is portrayed by English actor Ed Westwick. Although he is a secondary antagonist in the original book series, the TV serie ...

and

. He has been dating Blair since middle school. However, Nate is shown to have deep, unresolved feelings for Serena. They have

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

during the summer at a wedding. He reveals this to Blair in the first novel after Serena returns, and right before they were supposed to lose their

virginity Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

to each other, which causes their first breakup. He gets together with freshman

Jenny Humphrey Jennifer Tallulah Humphrey is one of the characters in both the ''Gossip Girl'' and '' The It Girl'' series of novels by Cecily von Ziegesar. She is portrayed by Taylor Momsen in the ''Gossip Girl'' television adaptation on The CW. Novel serie ...

, but later dumps her for Blair for being too clingy. He and Blair have an on-again-off-again relationship throughout most of the novels. Nate's family resides in a stately townhouse off

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...

on the exclusive

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and his mother's French

family owns a summer chateau in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. He is a fan of sailing like his father, and wished to do that instead of attending

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

with Blair, although he expressed interest in attending

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. At the end of the series he sails around the world with a friend of his father's, Captain Charles "Chips" White to avoid getting in between Blair and Serena again. In ''I Will Aways Love You'', on break from

Deep Springs College Deep Springs College (known simply as Deep Springs or DS) is a private, selective two-year college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher educat ...

, Nate chooses Blair in part I and then Serena in part II.

TV series

Nathaniel Archibald was born to Captain Howard Archibald, a successful

business magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

, and Anne Vanderbilt Archibald, a member of the

Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

. On the surface, Nate seems to be the perfect "Golden Boy" of the

. He is best friends with

, with whom he attends the elite St. Jude's School for Boys. Nate has been with girlfriend

"since kindergarten". However, he secretly harbors feelings for Blair's best friend,

. They shared a sordid one night stand before the show began, which caused her departure to boarding school. Nate's feelings for Blair are complicated by his ongoing infatuation with Serena and his parents' determination to keep him on a certain path. He later goes on to attend

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

In other media

Nate is the subject of the song 'Nate Will Not Return' by British post-punk band The Fall on their 2011 album ''

Ersatz GB ''Ersatz GB'' is the 28th studio album by the post-punk band the Fall, released on Cherry Red Records 14 November 2011. It is the Fall's first album on Cherry Red. The album marks the first time in the history of the Fall that the group have r ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Archibald, Nate Characters in American novels of the 21st century Fictional cannabis users Fictional characters from Manhattan Fictional college students Fictional fraudsters Fictional male prostitutes Fictional newspaper editors Fictional sailors Fictional socialites Fictional Columbia University people Gossip Girl characters Literary characters introduced in 2002 Male characters in literature Male characters in television Teenage characters in literature Teenage characters in television