Former Made In Chelsea star Binky Felstead has found love again, a year after splitting from Josh “JP” Patterson, the father of her child.
The reality TV star, 29, said she is surprised to have fallen so quickly for businessman Max Fredrik Darnton, who she has been dating since January and with whom she is considering buying a house.
Felstead, who has a two-year-old daughter, India, with her fellow former Made In Chelsea star Patterson, met Darnton at Oxfordshire members’ club Soho Farmhouse at the start of this year.
She told Hello! magazine: “I was at the bar ordering cocktails, and Max came up to me and said, ‘So, how are you, what do you do?’ And the first thing I said was, ‘I’m a mum!’
“I was so nervous about him not knowing that I had a child, so I wanted to get it out there before he asked me any more questions, just to see if he was going to run off or not.
“But his reply was, ‘OK… And?’ That was so nice and put me really at ease right away.”
Felstead, whose real name is Alexandra, said that she had “hoped I’d meet somebody”, adding: “I just didn’t know it would be so soon, and I didn’t know that this would be how I feel.”
She said that Londoner Darnton, 30, “brings out the best in me”, adding: “I’m incredibly lucky to have met him.”
The couple are planning on buying a house together, of which she said: “Things are going so nicely, so we’ll be looking – together! – for a big house in London with a garden – for India, and so that Max can get a dog.”
Darnton, a managing director at a global executive search and consulting firm, said: “We’re both very different but equally as driven and ambitious.
“We find each other funny – not many other people do! – and it’s completely natural and chilled.
“I feel very lucky to have met her. We really connect. I feel settled, and it feels normal.
“And India is amazing – I look at them both together and it’s really sweet. They have an incredible relationship.”
Felstead and Patterson were in an on-off relationship during their time in Made In Chelsea, although they were not together when she discovered she was pregnant.
They rekindled their romance after they learned they were to become parents in 2017.
But they announced their separation last September, 15 months after becoming parents.
– Hello! magazine is out now.
