Here's Why Luke Evans Keeps His Dating Life Private

With a murder case that’s went unsolved for two decades and characters that are inspired by real people, The Pembrokeshire Murders promises to be the chilling new true crime series to get you through these cold January nights. It also doesn’t hurt that Welsh actor Luke Evans heads up the cast as senior detective Steve Wilkins. The three part drama promises to get your pulse racing for more than one reason and you’ll be forgiven for wondering who Luke Evans is dating?

Historically, Evans has been pretty private about his love life. In an interview with Mr Porter in 2016 he said, "If somebody talks to me about my personal life, well, the clue is in the title: it’s personal, it’s private. I’m protecting myself, not because it’s anything that I’m embarrassed about, but because it’s mine." Evans has spoken about the fact that he's gay, but largely kept his romantic live private.

In the summer of 2019, the Welsh star started dating art director Rafa Olarrain. The pair made things Instagram official in Feb. 2020, when they shared a video of themselves holidaying together in Hawaii, per Pink News. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that by Oct. 2020, there was no sign of Olarrain on Evans’ social media, and they unfollowed each other. Speaking to The Times' Saturday Review recently, Evans confirmed that he’s single, saying “it is what it is.”

On January 11, Evans replied to reports via his Instagram Stories. Just to be very clear, no one, I repeat, no one, knows what is going on in my personal life apart from me,” he wrote.

“A simple one word comment made in an interview does not give gossip magazines anything more than that. If they choose to create sensational stories about my personal life, that is their choice, they wanna get hits to their page, I get it. But the truth is, they know very little about what’s really going on in my life. Relationships are hard, breakups are hard, and nothing is black and white. Love is a complex animal. Peace.”

Alongside The Pembrokeshire Murders, Evans has also been working on an adaptation of Nine Perfect Lives by Liane Moriarty, who famously also wrote Big Little Lies. Filming has taken him to Australia where he plays divorce lawyer Lars. “It was a lovely character to delve into and to calibrate and deliver this complex person. But, yes, it was nice to play a gay character after all these years of doing roles on stage and screen,” he said.

It’d seem you’re not going to be able to get enough of Evans. The first episode of The Pembrokeshire Murders airs on ITV at 9 p.m. on Jan. 11. It follows senior detective Steve Wilkins (played by Evans) as he pursues John Cooper, a man he thinks could be responsible for two murders, decades ago. And playing Wilkes comes with the added pressure that the whole story is true. Speaking about his role Evans said it was “a huge responsibility” and “this is a very serious, sad story where four people lost their lives and their families have struggled and suffered greatly because of it."

You can watch The Pembrokeshire Murders on Jan. 11, 12, and 13 at 9 p.m. on ITV.