Reformed lothario Orlando Bloom has popped the question to Katy Perry and is finally ready to settle down
HIS list of Hollywood lovers reads longer than some of his movie scripts, but Orlando Bloom is finally ready to become a one-woman man.
On Thursday the British actor, 42, popped the question to pop superstar Katy Perry, his on-off girlfriend of three years, in a romantic Valentine’s Day proposal.
It seems the Kent-born lothario has finally met his perfect match in the scatty, quirky and sexy 34-year-old — having previously been bogged down by unfulfilled relationships with some of the most high-maintenance women in showbiz.
It means Orlando has finally found a partner he can be silly with — be it dressing up as video game characters Mario and Luigi in Tokyo, puckering up at Adele concerts or trolling each other’s social media.
Friends agree that Orlando may come across as a serious guy but deep down he is quite playful and wants to enjoy life.
One said: “He can have a laugh with Katy, she’s completely different to all his exes. Plus, he has been with so many women he feels he’s had his fill and is desperate to add to his modern family set-up.”
Like Katy, who divorced British comedian Russell Brand in July 2012 after two years together, The Lord Of The Rings star has already suffered a marriage break-up.
He split from Aussie Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr — the mother of his eight-year-old son Flynn — in December 2013.
Miranda, 35, is one of many women Orlando romanced in his days as one of Hollywood’s most infamous swordsmen.
Supermodel Helena Christensen, model Kate Bosworth, Spider-Man star Kirsten Dunst, former wildchild Lindsay Lohan, actress Sienna Miller, Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev, fellow Lord Of The Rings elf Liv Tyler and Bond Girl Naomie Harris have all fallen for his charms.
Then there are the more under-the-radar romances, including a fling with Chiltern Firehouse waitress and aspiring actress Viviana Ross in 2017.
Orlando admits he may not have lived up to his lovers’ expectations down the years, saying in 2013: “I’m sure I was a great disappointment to many women because I wasn’t Errol Flynn. I’m me. I think that’s got some merit.”
Despite a strict religious upbringing, California-born Katy is relaxed about Orlando’s chequered dating history.
After all, she’s seen it all before, having dated and married Russell Brand — who slept with so many women The Sun’s Bizarre column at the time named the annual Shagger of the Year award after him.
Two years before she started dating Orlando, Katy had pretty much given up on men and even suggested she was prepared to have a baby on her own.
Still fresh from her divorce from Russell, she said: “I don’t need a dude. It’s 2014. We are living in the future, we don’t need anything.
“I don’t think I’ll have to, but we’ll see. I’m not anti-men. I love men. But there is an option if someone doesn’t present himself.”
In recent years, kids have clearly weighed on her mind.
In July 2016 she said: “Children to me are becoming a big focus. I see the amazing things of birth and children and [their] vulnerability, and how we have to take care of them and how big of an impression we have.”
It is a huge contrast from when she broke down during the making of her 2011 tour movie Part Of Me, shot while her marriage was falling apart.
Responding to a text she received from Russell mentioning their future kids, she said: “I will be a mother when I decide to be a mother, but not right now. A baby can’t have her baby.”
While Katy has yearned for a child, Orlando was pining for a wife.
In May 2017 he told a US talk show host: “I need a wife. Can you get me a wife? I want a wife — that’s what I’m looking for.”
Yet the perfect woman had been there all along.
He and Katy have known each other for years but their friendship became something else following a Golden Globes after-party in January 2016, where they were spotted getting close.
The next month they were seen kissing at an Adele concert in LA, before going on their first holiday in Hawaii together.
Their first real relationship test came in May that year after Orlando was snapped cosying up to singer Selena Gomez in the booth of a Las Vegas nightclub.
The American, 26, is the ex of Justin Bieber — with whom Orlando had a skirmish at a restaurant in Ibiza in 2014, allegedly over Justin’s boasts that he had slept with Orlando’s ex-wife Miranda.
But Katy made light of the hook-up, tweeting a link to her 100million followers of an article citing Orlando’s work with charity Unicef, rather than “giving energy and eyeballs to dumb conspiracy”.
They got the whole world talking.
Explaining the pictures in 2017, Katy said: “He wanted to show off for the people on the shore. He thought it was funny!
“Oh, oh, it was SO funny because I was explaining Twitter and social media to him for weeks because he had taken a break, and then all of a sudden he was, like, trending number one on Twitter!”
The laughs continued that Christmas, when Orlando spent the festive period with Katy and her parents in Wyoming, playing the game Pie-Face and filming himself being splattered with cream.
For his surprise 40th birthday in January 2017, Katy arranged onesies covered in Orlando’s face to be worn by all his close pals.
So it came as a shock when the very next month the pair suddenly split, after dating for ten months.
A rep said at the time: “Before rumours or falsifications get out of hand, we can confirm that Orlando and Katy are taking a respectful, loving space at this time.”
The couple stayed friends, with Katy playing down speculation that the pair had a bitter fallout, tweeting: “You can still be friends and love your former partners. No one’s a victim or a villain, get a life.”
It was clear that there were no hard feelings, with Katy jokingly ranking Orlando second on her all-time list of lovers in a sketch with James Corden on The Late Late Show.
Musician Diplo was first.Perhaps it was by remaining friends that the door to romance stayed open, and by last year their relationship was back on.
The couple took holidays in the Maldives and Prague, where Orlando was shooting his upcoming TV series Carnival Row.
They also went to Tokyo, where they pranced around the city dressed as Nintendo characters Mario and Luigi.
Orlando was at Katy’s side when she met the Pope at the Vatican last April, before they ramped up the comedy again two months later.
Responding to Orlando’s social media plugging his new London theatre play Killer Joe, Katy posted underneath in the comments: “I need a season pass for that ass.”
Eight months later, Orlando sealed the deal by proposing at a surprise party he threw in the US in front of guests wearing hoodies emblazoned with their “OK” initials.
Ahead of the bash, Orlando asked both Katy’s parents for permission to marry their daughter.
It shows the pair can be serious — sometimes.
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