Sam Thompson and Zara McDermott split earlier this year - and now he faces an awkward run in with her new man. The former Love Island star turned documentary maker is now dating One Direction star Louis Tomlinson.
In awkward timing, fresh from their split earlier this year, Sam, 32, is playing in the Soccer Aid game this weekend alongside the singer, 33, after they went public with their new romance. The pair have been spotted together multiple times.
As they prepare for another awkward run in this weekend - having trained together this week - people have been looking back at Sam and 28 year old Zara's romance as they rumbled the real reason for their split.One person, whose comment had more than 300 upvotes, said at the time: "A shame but not surprising. I always found it odd how much they talked about wanting to get married one day but never got engaged. I always sensed Sam wasn't sure."
Another fan agreed, saying: "This is it for me for two people who seemed so committed to show themselves as happy and healthy they did not seem in any rush to get engaged and married. That’s always a sign things probably aren't going as well as they want to make everyone believe," whilst one said: "It's common when you meet young to wait a bit to get married."
Just last year, Sam, admitted he felt "no pressure" to wed Zara, whilst she said she'd love to tie the knot.
"I'm so happy being with the person I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life with, I don't see any sort of rush at all. We speak about marriage a lot, but there's no pressure to put a ring on it," he said at the time.
Following the split, a source told OK! that Sam and Zara were "devastated" by their split. The insider said: "Although they have known it's been over for a while, Sam and Zara are both devastated and heartbroken that they couldn't make it work as they had so much love for each other. When they had problems in the summer they vowed to give it one more try and hoped that they could work through their issues, but it proved impossible as they were just at different stages in their lives."
Sam also gave a heartbreaking interview later where he said people could "see a sadness behind his eyes".
"I went through a breakup and everyone keeps saying they can see sadness behind the eyes," he said, "I'm terrified about where I am going. The way I see it, I am a plane and the pilot has passed out in the cockpit, and they are like: 'Does anyone know how to fly?'"Asked what he was doing for self love, he said: "Not much, to be honest with you. I suppose a lot of people look for validation in other people, and they look for the other person instantly to fill that hole. I can't do that."
