Wales rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit and new girlfriend Saffron Barker have caused a stir among fans, team-mates and celebrities with a public declaration of their romance.
Former Strictly Come Dancing contestant and YouTube star Barker, 23, has released an image of the couple sharing a first public kiss following a whirlwind few days that saw them attend a world film premiere and enjoy a night out in Cardiff with friends and the player’s mother, Maxine. You can read about that here.
The budding romance has seen fellow TV stars declare their happiness for the couple, while many of Rees-Zammit’s team-mates have also liked the Instagram post showing personal pictures. The winger is sure to receive plenty of banter from his Gloucester and Wales team-mates, who regularly poke fun at him for his jet set, celebrity-style lifestyle.
READ MORE: Who is Saffron Barker, Louis Rees-Zammit’s new celebrity girlfriend?
READ MORE: Louis Rees-Zammit takes Strictly star on night out in Cardiff with his mum
“We all just take the mick out of him,” Dan Biggar recently revealed. “The boys all call him St Tropez Away. They reckon he’s going to start a rugby team in St Tropez.”
Rees-Zammit doesn’t mind though, admitting he wants to enjoy his life on and off the pitch in the years to come.
“I want to be able to travel the world [during my career],” he said. “I want to have a good life and I want to enjoy myself. I want to go on loads of holidays. I definitely want to live abroad when I’m older. I’ve just got to wait for the right time, I guess.”
Barker’s fellow former Strictly and TV star Amy Dowden reacted to the picture on Instagram, saying: “Happy for you, Saf”, while dancer Abbie Quinnen said: “Adorable”. Singer Talia Storm added: “So happy for you Saff.” The instagram post got a huge reaction from fans of the pair, being liked more than 200,000 times
Rees-Zammit and Barker hit Cardiff city centre on Saturday night in the company of friends, including Welsh world boxing champion Joe Cordina and his wife Lauren. They visited a number of city centre bars, including Mocka Lounge on Mill Lane and Flight Club. Barker also shared footage of her dining at highly-rated restaurant Pasture.
And among the group during the evening was Rees-Zammit’s mother, Maxine. The winger posted a sweet picture of him and his mum on Instagram during the night out, describing here as “my world”.
Brighton-born star Barker is a social media influencer and YouTube content creator who has 2 million video subscribers and the same number of followers on Instagram. She also has her own YouTube channel where she posts about lifestyle and beauty, fashion and fitness, which has more than 2 million subscribers.
Barker appeared during the seventeenth series of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing where she was paired up with AJ Pritchard in 2019. They were eliminated during the tenth week of the competition, in which they faced presenter Karim Zeroual with his dance partner, Welsh star Amy Dowden, in a dance-off.
Since then, she has made several television appearances, including on the one-off special of The Greatest Dancer for Sport Relief in 2020, Channel 4’s The Celebrity Circle, Michael McIntyre’s BBC gameshow The Wheel, as well as Channel 4’s Celebrity Hunted, which saw the star teaming up with former University Challenge contestant and mathematician Bobby Seagull.
