Hollywood is filled with famous romances. From short-lived flings to long-time loves, the relationships of the glitterati are never far from a headline… unless you’re Daniel Radcliffe and Erin Darke.
Indeed, the pair have been together for almost 10 years, but you would barely know it given how quiet they’ve managed to keep their romance.
That’s not to say they’ve kept their individual lives a secret. Radcliffe starred in several major films following his decade-long stint on not-so-little series, Harry Potter, while Darke also garnered a following after starring on Amazon series Good Girls Revolt.
And in March 2022, the pair finally stepped back into the limelight together for the premiere of Radcliffe’s latest film, The Lost City—the first time they’d walked a red carpet it eight years.
Here, we take a look back at their romance, from co-stars to low-key loves.
2012: Radcliffe and Darke walk onto a set…
Radcliffe and Darke first met on the set of Kill Your Darlings. Ironically, the pair played love interests in the film, meaning that their first encounters were forever immortalised on-screen.
“Our characters are meeting and flirting with each other, so there is this kind of sweet record of us just meeting for the first time and flirting,” Radcliffe said in 2019.
“It’ll be a hell of a story to tell our kids one day because of what our characters do with each other,” he joked, referencing the sex scene included in the pair’s on-screen love story.
2013: First dates
The pair spent quality time together while promoting their film at the Sundance Film Festival, with a source at the time telling Us Weekly that they were “affectionate” towards each other.
October 2013: Confirmed
During an appearance on Andy Cohen, Radcliffe confirmed he was dating someone, though he didn’t give any other details at the time.
“My type is… the type I keep private. My type is intelligent,” he added.
2014: The red carpet debut
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Hollywood couple isn’t official until they’ve walked a red carpet together. That blissful moment came for Darke and Radcliffe in 2014 when they attended the Tony Awards.
The pair looked glamorous in their black-tie best as they celebrated Radcliffe’s on-stage project, The Cripple of Inishmaan.
2015: A viral rap
Yes, you read that correctly. In 2015, a video of Radcliffe and Darke rapping to Eminem’s Real Slim Shady at a karaoke night went viral—at the very end of the clip, the pair shared a quick kiss.
2018: A rare public appearance
It was a minute since we’d last seen them, but in 2018, Radcliffe and Darke fronted cameras once again at the opening night after party for Broadway play, The Lifespan of A Fact in New York City.
2020: Love lockdown
Radcliffe and Darke isolated together as the world went into lockdown in March 2020, with the Harry Potter star telling Vulture that they’d even done an 11-day self-quarantine together following a Covid-19 scare (which turned out to be negative).
“We decided to be super-responsible and self-quarantine so we haven’t stepped out of the apartment in… 11 days?” he told the publication, adding, “We’re both in the situation where we’ve never been more grateful not to have a kid, or more annoyed that we don’t have a dog. But generally speaking, compared to a lot of people, we are very, very much okay.”
2022: Red carpet 2.0
In March 2022, a full eight years after their first red carpet appearance, the pair stepped out for round two at the premiere of Radcliffe’s new film, The Lost City. The couple were all smiles as they posed for cameras, reminding us that they’re still real deal, even if we don’t see a lot of them.
Perhaps there’s something to be said for their extremely low-key near-decade-long romance. The key to a successful Hollywood relationship is to just… not put it in front of Hollywood? Go figure…
