Love Island star Liam Reardon has signalled he is feeling broody and wants to start a family with girlfriend Millie Court. The 25-year-old Welshman and his 28-year-old girlfriend are rare examples of success from the long-running ITV dating show.
They first met and fell for each other on Love Island back in 2021 when they were contestants in the villa during season seven. The pair coupled up, worked through the fact Liam had his head briefly turned in Casa Amor, and went on to win the show.
After leaving the villa, the romance continued – but they pair split in 2022, only to reunite later that same year and things have been going swimmingly in the months and years since. Now Liam has signalled he wants to plan a full future with Millie as he has signalled he wants to start a family with her.
Over the weekend, Liam’s sister shared footage of him playing with a child while in a village in Wales. He then re-posted the content via his Instagram Stories – adding a telling caption stating: “@milliegracecourt I want one.”
Liam’s proposal comes two years after they explained that their romance was stronger than ever following their brief separation in 2022. Liam told the Daily Mail in 2023: “I think the break we had really helped a lot. I never felt like I never wanted to see her again.”
Millie also described how the relationship had changed for the better after they spent some time apart. She said: “It didn’t end sourly, it wasn’t that kind of breakup.
“It was a decision that we needed a break. I think we both knew it wasn’t going to be something that ended forever. I think we knew it was something we wanted to revisit but it was time that we needed.”
She enthusiastically added at the time: “We managed to make it work again and now it’s better than ever.”
At the end of last year, Liam made it clear to all that he was still deeply in love with his reality star partner as he posted a gushing tribute online to mark her birthday. He wrote on Instagram last December: “Wishing my beautiful, loving & kind Girlfriend a massive Happy Birthday (she’s 28) incase anyone is wondering.”
Recapping their love journey, he wrote: “We met when you were 24 and how so much has changed over the last few years. Life is so good with you in it & being able to do all the great things that we do are only made better when you’re by my side.”
He continued: “Thought I’d add some throwback photos in to where it first started. I can’t wait for us to spend Christmas & new year together in Australia.”
And he added: “Love you so much babe.”
Last month the couple enjoyed a holiday to the Maldives together were the shared a string of loved-up posts while in the sunshine. The couple posed and kissed and shared the photos via Instagram with fans applauding the duo for their continued relationship success.
Gallagher Premiership
Exeter (21) 42
Tries: Lilley, Skinner 2, Brown-Bampoe 2, Moloney Cons: Slade 5, Hodge
Northampton (7) 14
Exeter Chiefs gained some late season pride with a scrappy 42-14 victory over a youthful Northampton Saints at Sandy Park.
Chiefs’ debutant Nick Lilley and Saints’ Jake Garside exchanged tries before the home side took control on the verge of half-time with scores from Harvey Skinner and Paul Brown-Bampoe.
Tom Lockett reduced the deficit for the Saints soon after the break, but Martin Moloney’s opportunistic score put the game beyond the visitors before Brown-Bampoe and Skinner added late gloss to the scoreline.
With neither team likely to qualify for the play-offs, both were looking to give experience to younger players after difficult domestic seasons.
This was evident in a scrappy opening quarter littered with errors, as both teams struggled to get into a rhythm.
That was until Exeter pulled off an intricate set-piece move involving Henry Slade, Josh Hodge and finally Lilley, with the winger racing down the wing to score on his debut.
The Saints, resting most of their starters before the Champions Cup final later in the month, responded quickly.
With Will Rigg in the sin-bin following repeated Chiefs infringements, the visitors finally opted to go wide with Garside forcing his way through a closing gap to secure the Saints’ first points of the afternoon.
While there was no lack of effort, the lack of real quality was telling, with Slade forced to kick the ball downfield during an inviting counter-attacking opportunity because Hodge strayed ahead of him on the outside.
But seemingly out of nothing the Chiefs found their feet with a quick-fire double.
Skinner was first to cross the whitewash; the fly-half having read a wayward pass from Tom James close to halfway, before gathering and running clear to the delight of the home crowd.
The fans were on their feet again minutes later.
Knowing the game hung in the balance as they came out for the second half, the Saints quickly cut into the home side’s lead.
Following a quick tap from Jonny Weimann in front of the Chiefs’ posts, first-time captain Lockett stretched over the line to score despite two defenders trying to hold him up.
In the following play, Exeter should have had a fourth.
Skinner’s perfectly weighted grubber in the Saints’ 22 would not sit up for the on-rushing Hodge, who knocked the ball on with the try-line at his mercy.
But ultimately it did not matter with the Chiefs securing the try bonus point soon after.
Tom Cairns was responsible for pilfering the ball from debutant Archie Benson at the resulting scrum before feeding Moloney to score the easiest try of his career.
Exeter Chiefs’ director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:
“I made my mind up two weeks ago that I’m not going to sugar coat things. We’ve got to have some brutal honesty about what we did, some of that today was pretty poor.
“Some of our decision-making when we try to play a simpler system, to give them the opportunity to get through more than three phases and it couldn’t have been simpler, we were still struggling to get through three phases, we need to grow up a bit
“Our big problem is the crowd are quite happy we’ve got a five-point win today, I was fuming, absolutely fuming, it shows how much we have to cut out, of what’s wrong in what we’re doing and improve some very, very poor basics.”
Northampton Saints’ director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:
“Most of the players put in an enormous amount of effort and work, they showed huge heart, clearly there are things we need to do better and clearly we’re not happy with the result, but I was delighted that for large parts today they performed really well.
“The two tries before half-time obviously hurt, and then towards the end it got a bit loose and we didn’t make them work hard enough for those scores.
“One intercept and one line break and then it’s a two score game and it becomes a bit more of a mountain.”
Exeter: Hodge; Lilley, Slade, Rigg, Brown-Bampoe; Skinner, Townsend; Sio, Yeandle, Street, Tuima, Jenkins, Vermuelen, Capstick, Roots.
Replacements: Frost, Blose, Iosefa-Scott, Tshiunza, Moloney, Cairns, Haydon-Wood, Tua.
Sin-bin: Rigg (21).
Northampton: Garside; Cousins, Seabrook, Litchfield, Glister; James, Weimann; West, Walker, Millar Mills, Prowse, Munga, Lockett, Brown, Scott-Young.
Replacements: Wright, Haffar, Green, Hunter-Hill, Logan, Benson, Witheat, Baker.
Stars including Joseph Fiennes, Billie Piper, Danny Dyer and singer Jessie J graced the red carpet at the TV Baftas, where Netflix’s dark comedy series Baby Reindeer went head-to-head with ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
There were glorious styles on show, from the daring to traditional attire as some of the biggest names in British showbiz calendar dressed to impress.
The ceremony, hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming at London’s Royal Festival Hall, will honour ITV with the Bafta TV special award for commissioning the post office drama Mr Bates.
The gripping series, which shed light on the subpostmasters wrongfully prosecuted during the Horizon IT scandal, has garnered six nominations and is also up for the memorable moment category.
Leading the nominations this year with eight nods is the stalking drama Baby Reindeer, a creation of Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, who has already bagged numerous awards, including the best limited series Emmy.
On the red carpet, Jessie J, born Jessica Cornish, was seen posing for photos with host Cumming, ahead of her scheduled performance at the ceremony, where she’ll be joined by fellow British singer Tom Grennan.
The event comes amidst US president Donald Trump’s proposal of a 100% tariff on international films. Bafta chief executive Jane Millichip called for more “meaningful conversations” regarding Mr Trump’s tariffs.
She stated: “I think the most important thing is, if you look at the history of film and television, the UK and the US have been in lockstep for decades, almost a whole century across film and TV,” adding that culturally, the two nations are closely tied.
“Culturally, we’re so tied, and there is so much co-production happening, I think to unpick that will be like making eggs out of an omelette to be honest.”
Lenny Rush, who shot to stardom as the quick-witted offspring of Daisy May Cooper’s character in the BBC smash hit Am I Being Unreasonable?, shared with the PA news agency on the red carpet that he felt more at ease this year, following his 2024 Bafta win for male performance in a comedy. “It was unreal, I still can’t believe it to be honest. It’s just such a nice experience and I can relax a bit more this year,” he expressed.
Fiennes, known for his portrayal of former England manager Gareth Southgate in the play Dear England and his role in the dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale, is set to present at the Bafta ceremony alongside young star Owen Cooper from Adolescence, Poirot actor Sir David Suchet, TV baking queen Dame Mary Berry, and Stacey Dooley.
Disney+ drama Rivals, based on a novel by Dame Jilly Cooper, has bagged six nominations and a nod for a memorable moment, while Apple TV+ spy series Slow Horses, featuring Oscar winner Gary Oldman, also boasts six nominations.
Actress Piper is up for a nomination for her role in Netflix’s Scoop, where she portrays former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, responsible for securing the infamous Newsnight interview with the Duke of York.
She will vie for the leading actress award against Marisa Abela for the banking drama Industry, and Anna Maxwell Martin for her part in ITV’s Until I Kill You, which narrates the real-life story of Delia Balmer who survived a near-death relationship with murderer John Sweeney.
Adolescence star Ashley Waters on ‘finding peace’ riding electric motorbike
Great Britain’s Jack Draper beat Vit Kopriva to reach the last 16 of the Italian Open but his frustration boiled over during a straight-set win.
Although the fifth seed won 6-4 6-3 in Rome, he was made to work hard to close out the victory and at one point hit the court multiple times with his racquet.
Draper, who came into the tournament on the back of reaching the Madrid Open final, held serve throughout and took the first set in 41 minutes, saving one break point.
But it was by no means plain sailing in the second as Czech qualifier Kopriva saved four break points to cut his deficit to 3-2.
After Draper gave him the game by sending a drop shot into the net, he struck the clay four times with his racquet before slamming it on to the floor by his chair.
The 23-year-old left three divots in the centre of the court – and his racquet in tatters – and received a warning from the umpire.
Kopriva went 40-0 up in the following game but the world number 92 spurned the chance to break back as he sent a straightforward backhand long.
Draper regrouped to hold his serve and take a 4-2 lead, before setting up the chance to break Kopriva for the second time in the set – and the third overall.
Again Kopriva proved stubborn opposition by saving two match points, the second after a bad bounce on one of the divots left by Draper forced an error from the British number one.
But Draper clinched victory at the third time of asking, having hit twice as many winners as Kopriva (21-10), although Draper did notch up more unforced errors (37-27).
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Trent Bridge (day three)
Nottinghamshire 333 & 345: Patterson-White 135, Haynes 120; Abbott 3-62
Hampshire 196 & 116: Baker 27; James 5-22, Hutton 4-56
Notts (21 pts) beat Hampshire (3 pts) by 366 runs
Hampshire collapsed to defeat after centuries from Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White had batted them out of the game as Division One leaders Nottinghamshire romped to a third victory in their opening five matches of the County Championship season, winning by a massive 366-run margin.
All-rounder Patterson-White struck a magnificent career-best 135 containing 21 fours and two sixes, with Haynes making 120, the pair sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 238 as the Trent Bridge side made 345 in their second innings.
Chasing down 483 to win looked wholly unrealistic on a pitch that has made the new ball a potent weapon but Hampshire supporters would have hoped at least to see the match taken to a fourth day.
Instead they witnessed their team bowled out for a miserable 116 by 17:30 BST with former favourite Mohammad Abbas not even among the wickets as the bowling honours were shared between Lyndon James (5-22) and Brett Hutton (4-56).
The winning margin is Nottinghamshire’s second largest by runs in their Championship history.
The mayhem of the final session was in complete contrast with the first, when it felt like a different match as Nottinghamshire’s seventh wicket pair, whose partnership was worth 87 at Saturday’s close, added another 144 runs before lunch.
Haynes, 60 overnight, had given his team-mate a 21-run start but in the event, as Hampshire’s bowlers toiled in vain to conjure life from an aging ball on a pitch that looked benign for the first time in the match, Patterson-White was first to three figures.
He reached the milestone from 139 balls with a mighty pull for six off Sonny Baker. It was his second six of the innings, having hit 76 runs of his hundred runs in boundaries.
Given that he had not made even a half-century in 32 innings over three seasons before this one and had struggled to keep his place in the side, it was little wonder he allowed himself a lengthy celebration.
Moments later, he overtook his previous career-best – 101 against Somerset at Taunton in 2021 – before a single off Baker completed Haynes’s hundred, from 137 balls, also with 16 fours, his second in five innings.
Haynes, dropped at deep square leg on 80, departed three overs after lunch. Kyle Abbott now had the new ball in hand but it was coming back for a second run to deep mid-wicket that cost Haynes, Baker’s throw to the wicketkeeper beating him comfortably.
Nonetheless, the completed first run was enough to take the partnership to 238, Nottinghamshire’s second biggest for the seventh wicket against any opponent.
Abbott followed up with a more conventional new-ball wicket in his next over – taking his tally for the season to 23 as the country’s leading wicket-taker so far – as Hutton was caught behind without scoring, after which Farhan Ahmed was yorked by James Fuller and Patterson-White bowled off a bottom edge.
It gave Hampshire a theoretical target of 483 to win the match or else bat long enough to salvage some pride. Yet the chances of achieving even that quickly diminished as they slipped to 33-3 at tea.
Abbas bowled six wicketless overs but from the other end Hutton had a leaden-footed Fletcha Middleton leg before and Mark Stoneman caught behind off a thin outside edge. First change James then dismissed Prest, who top-edged a cut as Kyle Verreynne held a second catch.
And there was little sign of Hampshire trying to bed in for a fight after tea as wickets tumbled with unseemly frequency.
Ben Brown’s loose pull off Hutton came down in the hands of square leg, Nick Gubbins fell tamely to a catch at extra cover off, Liam Dawson was caught on the boundary hooking, Fuller flicked straight to midwicket, Toby Albert, dropped at first slip, edged to third – albeit superbly caught by Haynes – and Brad Wheal was caught at mid-off, leaving the visitors 82-9.
Abbott and Baker kept the home side’s celebrations on hold for 10 overs before the latter sliced to backward point for 27 as Hampshire’s top scorer, Patterson-White aptly taking the final wicket.
Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White:
“The last couple of years haven’t gone that well for me with the bat but I’ve been working hard, particularly on my mindset at the crease.
“I’m naturally an attacking player but I’ve tried to focus on batting time and not getting too far ahead of myself.
“We have such a strong squad here and no spot is guaranteed but I’ve been determined that when I get the chance I will make the most of it. Just to get into the side is a real privilege and a great opportunity to show what I’m all about.
“To get that final wicket to wrap up a three-day win felt really nice too but credit to how the fast bowlers bowled today and in the first innings. And having Mohammad Abbas coming in for his first game, taking a five-for, he is a class act.”
Hampshire head coach Adi Birrell:
“Full credit to them – they were ruthless, got us down and didn’t let us get off the floor. It was a poor performance by us all round, it’s very disappointing but we have no excuses.
“We didn’t play very well with the ball in the first innings or in the field, or with the bat in the second innings. The pitch quietened down in the second innings and there were not many balls that got us out, we got ourselves out.
“We haven’t had a defeat like this for a long time but the games come thick and fast and we’ve got an opportunity on Friday to put this right. This has to be a game in isolation.