Tamzin Outhwaite has opened up about her experience with dating apps as she expands her search for love – but there could be one major flaw in her approach to online dating
Tamzin Outhwaite is swiping for love – revealing she has signed up to a dating app. The 54-year-old soap icon has been single since last year after she split from toyboy fitness instructor boyfriend Tom Child.
The star, famous for playing Mel Owen on the BBC show from 1998 until 2019, was previously married to Miranda star Tom Ellis, 46, from 2006 until 2014. The couple divorced amid explosive claims he had cheated – sparking the end of the relationship.
The former husband and wife share two daughters together – while he welcomed another daughter with wife Meaghan Oppenheimer in 2023, and he has an older daughter from a prior relationship. Tamzin enjoyed a relationship with Tom Child from 2017 to the summer of 2024 – getting together after meeting at a yoga class.
Tom Child is 20 years younger than the soap actress, and while the relationship is over, the former couple are said to still be friends. But now Tamzin has revealed she is ready for love again following her 2024 break up.
And she has admitted she has turned to technology to try and find love via the algorithm and through swiping right – and left. But she also confessed she forgets she is signed up to the dating app – so some men may be waiting to match.
Opening up to The Sun, she said: “I’m single, I’ve tried the dating apps. I’m on one now but I keep forgetting to check it. I just can’t imagine actually going on the date and going back to the small talk. It will happen one day but I’m certainly not waiting for it.”
She continued: “I’ve been single for over a year now and I’m loving it too much. I owe it to myself to be single, because I haven’t been single for this long, ever.”
She added: “I have always been in relationships. I actually like being on my own, it’s really nice.”
Last month, Tamzin opened up about the close friendship she had formed with Tom Child following their split last year and after seven happy years together. She told Hello Magazine: “He’s still one of my best friends, and I adore him. But I had to say: ”I don’t want to share a bed. I’m in a phase where I need to be on my own’.”
And last year, Tamzin opened up to the Mirror about her single status, having then recently broken up with the fitness hunk. She said: “I’m happy single. There’s a lot on! Life is really busy, throwing a relationship into that is a whole other thing.
“Freedom fills up my cup, freedom to do as you please is a lovely thing. That makes me happy.” Tamzin, who took part in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special last year, said she is on a quest to challenge herself, build on things that make her happy and “fill up my own cup”
She was paired with Nikita Kuzmin for the Christmas Special – and shared that some of her friends tried to warn her off taking part in the cursed show.
She revealed: “Some people have said to me ‘oh you should do it’ and other people have said ‘definitely don’t’ – but these aren’t people who have done it!
“These are actor friends of mine that are like, ‘Why? Don’t do it, it’s going to be a nightmare’ but actually this is a little taster for me. It’s making me kind of think it wouldn’t necessarily be a nightmare. My body might be able to hold up.”
Sharing her joy for dance, she said at the time: “In my head, when I’m dancing I think I look like Nadiya (Bychkova). And then I catch myself in the mirror and I’m like, ‘oh dear’. In my head it looks and feels really beautiful – I’m trying to be graceful but that’s not in my comfort zone.”
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