Culture Craze

Game of Thrones Was My Sex Ed: Sophie Turner Gets Candid About Growing Up On Set

Published

3 months ago

July 10, 2025

Chiraag

For many, Game of Thrones was the TV event of the decade, featuring epic battles, political twists, and plenty of scandalous scenes. But for British actress Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark from just 14 years old, the HBO series became something more than just a career launch. In her own words, it became her sex education.

Speaking on the UK podcast Dish with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, Turner, now 29, opened up about how growing up on one of the most talked-about sets in TV history shaped her in surprising ways.

“I definitely got my sex education from that show,” she laughed. “More than enough.”

This remark is humorous but also strikingly relatable in the age of binge-watching, where many of our first exposures to sex, intimacy, and relationships come from streaming screens rather than classrooms.

Learning from the set, not the syllabus

Turner never attended drama school. Instead, she says Game of Thrones was the best acting class she could have asked for. Surrounded by award-winning performers and immersed in scripts that explored power, trauma, and sexuality, she grew up fast, both on camera and behind the scenes.

“The subject matter was so heavy,” she told The Cut in 2022. “I just developed a coping mechanism of having fun between takes.”

Although some scenes were emotionally challenging, Turner says she was too young to fully grasp the intensity at the time. Still, she acknowledges that some of those experiences may resonate later in life.

When TV becomes the teacher

Turner’s story is not uncommon. A 2021 survey by the American Sexual Health Association showed that many young people cite TV and online media as their first exposure to topics such as sex, consent, and body image, often long before any formal education.

Sex educator Dr Emily Morse, host of the Sex With Emily podcast, agrees that pop culture can open important conversations.

“Shows can spark curiosity,” she says. “But we need to balance entertainment with actual, evidence-based education.”

Game of Thrones, with its infamous and often controversial sex scenes, is hardly an ideal model for healthy intimacy. Yet for Turner, those scripts became part of her lived experience. Whether we like it or not, media teaches us things, and sometimes, it teaches us first.

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Image 1: Yahoo News NZ

“I’ve never even watched it myself”

Despite becoming one of the show’s most recognisable faces, Turner revealed she has never watched Game of Thrones in full.

“It’s horrible watching yourself,” she said on Dish. And honestly, fair enough.

While millions tuned in for entertainment, Turner was living her adolescence in front of the camera, a surreal overlap of performance and personal development.

Life after Westeros

Since wrapping Game of Thrones, Turner’s life has been eventful off-screen. She married pop star Joe Jonas in 2019, welcomed two daughters (Willa and Delphine), and went through a very public divorce in 2023 that drew global headlines and court attention.

Despite it all, she credits the show with shaping her professionalism and personal values.

“It informed my entire life,” she reflected. “The cast became my family.”

Her journey from a young girl in Winterfell to a confident adult navigating fame, motherhood, and the spotlight is a story in itself, a reminder that sex education doesn’t always come in a classroom. Sometimes, it’s on a call sheet.

Why this matters in 2025

Turner’s honesty touches on an issue many South Africans and Brits still face: the lack of accessible, inclusive sex education in schools. When the curriculum lags behind reality, young people often turn to media, flawed though it may be, to fill the gap.

While Game of Thrones was not designed to teach anyone about intimacy, it did start conversations. In Turner’s case, it taught her more than expected, and her story might help others feel less alone in how they have learned too.