In just a few short years, Gemma Chan has become one of the hottest up-and-coming stars in Hollywood. Her breakout role in 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians put her on the map, and the 38-year-old actress has been nabbing roles in acclaimed indies and blockbuster films (including the Marvel movie Eternals) ever since. But when it comes to Gemma Chan dating, this London-born beauty is extremely guarded. Here’s a look at everything we know about her current relationship with HER boyfriend, Dominic Cooper.
Gemma Chan Has Been Dating Dominic Cooper Since 2018
Chan has been in a relationship with Cooper for roughly three years. According to Vogue, the pair live together in London, which is where both stars were born and raised. After months of dating rumors, the couple made their first public appearance together in December of 2018 at an afterparty for the British Fashion Awards. They’ve been together ever since, though neither are big on flaunting their relationship or speaking about their love life to the press.
“Over 10 years, you learn the importance of privacy, what you choose to share and what you don’t,” Chan said in a 2021 interview with Elle UK. “When you start out, you don’t even know what is important to keep for yourself—I didn’t anyway—whereas now I think there are certain things that I absolutely know, ‘That’s mine and it’s private.'”
Just because this duo is protective of their privacy doesn’t mean they try to hide their relationship from the world. Chan and Cooper often pop up on each other’s social media feed, especially when working together to support charitable causes. During the start of the pandemic, for example, the happy couple teamed up to deliver meals to National Health Service (NHS) workers through a non-profit called Cook-19. In an April 2020 post, Chan posed alongside Cooper and shared snaps of their undertaking with the caption: “80 meals delivered to the incredible NHS staff at Charing Cross Hospital on behalf of @donate_cook_19. We’re so grateful for everything you’re doing.”
Chan And Cooper Have Both Dated Other Celebs
Both Chan and Cooper had long-term relationships with other famous performers before meeting and falling in love with each other. From 2011 until 2017, Chan dated actor and comedian Jack Whitehall, who is best known for starring in the British shows Fresh Meat and Bad Education and the Netflix comedy series Travels With My Father. While Chan has never spoken publicly about the six-year relationship, Whitehall revealed some intimate details about the couple and the reasons for their break up during an episode of the documentary-style Travels With My Father.
“I’ve had a lot of changes in my life recently,” Whitehall says in the show (as reported by Metro UK). “I’m single now. I was in a relationship, it broke down, it was not gonna work, it was a long-distance relationship, not geographically, just in terms of our expectations. She wanted kids now whereas I wanted to escape. I’m not good with kids.”
Whitehall also shared that the split was quite cordial, much to his dismay as a creative artist. “You want to hate the person, that is a healthy way to end a relationship,” the comedian joked. “The one advantage at having tragedy in your life is you get material out of it, and [Chan] couldn’t even do that. No one has ever written an album about a wonderful breakup where everyone behaved impeccably. I wanted her trampling my heart into the floor, she took my mum for tea to help my mum transition through the split. F*** you with your generosity.”
Who Has Dominic Cooper Dated?
As for Cooper’s romantic past, he dated Mean Girls actress Amanda Seyfried, whom he met in 2007 while filming the movie Mamma Mia!. Even though the couple split in 2010, they had to work together years later for the movie’s 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. In a 2018 interview with Attitude, Cooper discussed what it was like to have to work so closely with an ex, who he said had become “a friend.”
“[Amanda’s] married now and has a beautiful child,” the My Week with Marilyn actor explained. “We knew we were going to be working together [again] on a set, going back to a part which was certainly going to remind us of 10 years earlier, but I know her family, I know her mum, who was there a lot. It was really interesting to see how different our lives are after 10 years. It is a long time and it was nice to spend time [with her].”
While Seyfried is now happily married to actor Thomas Sadoski, she admitted that her breakup with Cooper was very painful, especially because she discovered he was involved with someone else. “I got my heart broken pretty hard,” the actress told Elle in 2011 (as reported by People). “I was just kind of foolishly thinking that the two of them were done and Dom and I were involved.”
While we don’t know for sure, it’s highly likely that that woman was actress Ruth Negga, whom Cooper first met while performing a play in 2009 and dated for eight years, not long after his breakup with Seyfried. Negga and Cooper worked together on a number of projects while they were dating, including the 2016 film Warcraft and the AMC show Preacher. The couple also lived together for a period of time in London before finally calling it quits in 2018.
