It was a thumbnail that first caught Alex Thomas-Smith ’s attention. “I was scrolling through my message requests on Instagram and was like, ‘Wait… who’s this from?’” they recall, smirking. “He’s so cute!?” The DM in question came from Ciaran Thomas-Smith , a 20-year-old actor from Lancashire, who had been left on read for weeks. “We got chatting and, yeah, he asked me out, but I was 25 and living off the rails in Berlin, so I kept finding reasons to say no.” It took some persistence for Alex to realise that, just because they weren’t picturing a full-blown relationship didn’t mean they couldn’t have “fun”.

Their first date ended up lasting two-and-a-half weeks – spanning Christmas and New Year’s – and concluded, somewhat dramatically, with Alex splitting Ciaran’s eyebrow open. “It wa

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