Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is best known for his on-screen romances as the bespectacled boy wizard with Cho Chang (Katie Leung) and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright).
But he’s actually been in a long-term relationship with his real-life girlfriend Erin Darke since 2012.
The pair met on-set for the film Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel and Dane DeHaan across each other as poets during World War II.
Since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength – so much so that there have even been rumours floating around about their potential engagement.
To celebrate Daniel’s birthday, we delve deeper into the adorable romance he’s struck up with Erin.
Flint water crisis
(Image: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic)
Erin originally hails from the city of Flint, Michigan.
The city suffered a huge water crisis from 2014 until 2019, when the drinking water was contaminated with lead and potentially with Legionella bacteria.
It occurred after the city switched water suppliers due to budgeting costs, which resulted in somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 children being exposed to lead, and the announcement of a public health state of emergency.
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Daniel flew out to Flint to visit Erin in 2014, with the duo being spotted at various businesses in the area and even scoring a t-shirt from one Flint restaurant that he promised to take back to London.
Erin has spoken about the water crisis on her social media accounts, tweeting back in 2018 in a response to a drop in reading proficiency and its connection with the lead-contaminated water.
She wrote: “This makes me want to cry. Flint still doesn’t have drinkable water and there is NOTHING in place to help the generation of impacted children.”
On-set meeting
The pair originally met on-set for the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings.
Daniel played poet Allen Ginsberg in the wartime flick, while Erin took up the role of Gwendolyn – who has a racy oral sex scene with her off-screen partner in the movie.
Speaking to People about meeting his love for the first time, Daniel giggled: “It’ll be a hell of a story to tell our kids one day because of what our characters do with each other.
“Our characters are meeting and flirting with each other, so there is this kind of sweet record of us just meeting for the first time and flirting.”
He said he was attracted to Erin immediately, telling Playboy: “There’s no acting going on – not from my end, anyway. There’s a moment when she makes me laugh, and I’m laughing as me and not as my character.”
That wasn’t Erin’s only acting role, of course – she’s also starred in everything from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to Homeland.
Best friends
(Image: FilmMagic)
Daniel makes no secret of the fact that Erin is his best friend.
Speaking to Us Weekly in 2014, he proudly declared: “I think that’s the kind of relationship I always aspire to have with someone I’m in a relationship with. You want that person to be your best friend.
“In the case of Erin, we definitely are.”
Daniel has admitted the duo enjoy doing ‘super nerdy’ things together, and that it’s “fantastic” to have someone to share that with.
Erin even made a special appearance during a Buzzfeed interview in which Daniel sat down to read out ‘thirst tweets’ made by fans in reference to himself.
He said on camera: “Just found out last night what thirst tweets actually means, I thought it was just tweets that were thirsty for attention, not that that attention was specifically sexual.”
Daniel read aloud: “I believe in magic and that magic is Daniel Radcliffe’s abs.”
“That’s very kind!” the star remarked. “If you can hear someone else laughing at this, that is my girlfriend,” Daniel explained.
Covid hoax
(Image: GC Images)
Erin and Daniel were involved in a coronavirus hoax last year, when the pandemic was just beginning.
The incident was caused by a rogue tweet which posed as breaking news from the BBC – but it all turned out to be fake.
Speaking to The New York Times, Daniel explained: “It’s just, like, odd. I read somewhere that they said I was a perfect person to do it with because I don’t have social media, so I can’t see it and respond immediately.”
Instead, Dan found out from the hair and makeup artist on the play he was working on.
“A lovely guy called Rob, [he] turned around with a sort of knowing smile and he was like, ‘You’ve got coronavirus.’
(Image: Getty Images North America)
“I was like, ‘what? I’m sure I don’t. I just did a play.’,” Daniel told an Australian radio programmed. “And he said, ‘yeah, my niece just texted me.’
“I think it’s just because I look ill all the time, so you can believably say it about me,” he laughed.
Erin was left frantically worried about her boyfriend, telling Vulture: “I was on a plane back from visiting him. As soon as the plane landed, I turned my phone on and I had all these texts like, ‘Is Daniel okay?’
The only text she got from Daniel, Erin reported, was about her leaving her Invisalign retainer behind at his flat.
“I was just very confused. He seemed really okay [and] he’s only texting me about my retainer, so if that’s his way of letting me know he has corona, we need to work on our communication!” she laughed.
Engagement rumours
(Image: FilmMagic)
It was first suggested that Daniel and Erin were engaged way back in 2014 – but those rumours turned out to be false.
But the rumours popped up again just last year, as US publication Star Magazine reported that an anonymous source said that Dan took Erin ring shopping.
The supposed close friend of the actor said: “Daniel is desperately in love.
“[He] recently took Erin ring shopping and spared no expense. They’ve been talking about marriage for a while now, and he thought this was something worth splurging on.”
They said Daniel and Erin wanted to keep their relationship – and potential wedding – low-key, but said the couple were “bursting with excitement”.
But it’s not clear whether there’s any truth to the rumours just yet.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
