Dev Patel Keeps His Love Life Under Wraps

They were adorable, and then one day they weren't a "they" anymore. So, who has Dev Patel dated since Freida Pinto? It's a tricky question to answer. To start, Patel is notoriously private about his personal life, which is fair. But let's rewind. Patel and Pinto were together for nearly six years until they broke up in December 2014. Pinto spoke about the breakup to Us Weekly and said,

"Everybody has their own little discoveries to make. Their own surprises, their own disappointments, and they're all part and parcel of life... Dev and I are best friends, that's never going to change."

While Patel refused to talk about the gritty details as to why the couple split (though, much like Pinto he waxed lyrical about how important they are to each other) in an interview with The Guardian, he did deny rumors that they were only together as a publicity stunt to promote Slumdog Millionaire. He said,

“That would be a really long game for a horny 17-year-old to play. There’s not even any point me trying to clarify or justify it, because then you give those silly headlines power. And they mean nothing. I never read gossip because it doesn’t matter to me.”

But that was then. What's happened since? Patel doesn't have Instagram and he doesn't have Twitter. But happily, British tabloids exist — so maybe we can speculate?

Whoa, wait a minute. Even the British tabloids, never known for giving celebrities space and privacy, are giving us extremely limited amounts of juice. In January 2015, The Daily Mail published some pictures of Patel with a "mystery brunette" at an airport. She's very pretty and they look good together, but they're not even touching. Heck, Patel's not even looking at her. I hate to state the obvious, but I sometimes get on planes with people without being involved in a top-secret love tryst with them. I'm calling this: She could be literally anyone, from his assistant to his best friend from his childhood.

Then, there's a gap in coverage of Patel's love life until 2017. According to an unnamed source at The Mirror in February 2017, Patel has no girlfriend. The source claimed,

“When he was going out with Freida, he wanted to support her so he travelled round the world to be with her, to premieres and events. Now he says he can concentrate on his work, and that’s why he has made three or four films. He is a very hard-working, intelligent young man. He doesn’t need any distractions.”

The three or four films presumably refer to the films he's made since the breakup: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Chappie, The Man Who Knew Infinity. You guys, I am not saying Patel has not dated anyone in two years. But there's certainly no evidence on the internet to suggest he has — and given all the great films he's been focusing on in the meantime, maybe that's a good thing.