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 series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012), and of Kevin Moskowitz / The Deep in the television series '' The Boys ...

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 and

Serena van der Woodsen Serena Celia van der Woodsen Humphrey is a fictional character 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 narrator, "Gossip ...

Novel series

Nate Archibald is a

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact 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 w ...

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

socialite A socialite is a person, typically a woman from a wealthy or 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 ...

, and his father, Captain Archibald, is a former

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

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 British actor Ed Westwick. Although he is a secondary antagonist in the original book series, the TV se ...

and Blair Waldorf. 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 biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

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 a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereo ...

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 (novel series), Gossip Girl'' and ''The It Girl (book series), The It Girl'' series of novels by Cecily von Ziegesar. She is portrayed by Taylor Momsen in the Gossip Gi ...

, 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 boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...

on the exclusive

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and his mother's French

family owns a summer chateau in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

with Blair, although he expressed interest in attending

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

. 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 junior college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher education in the U ...

, 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 an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

, 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 philanth ...

. 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 Blair Waldorf "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 in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

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''.

References

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