Emily Atack feared she would never find true love before meeting 'polar opposite' boyfriend

Actress Emily Atack has opened up on her relationship with nuclear scientist Dr Alistair Garner, admitting she was convinced she was 'unlucky in love' before they met

Emily Atack has revealed that she once believed she was doomed to be "unlucky in love" forever.

Now happily in a relationship with nuclear scientist Dr Alistair Garner and mother to their four-month-old son Barney, she confessed that before finding happiness, she battled with "very low self-esteem" and had resigned herself to the possibility of never finding love.

Speaking to HELLO! magazine, she said: "I thought I was always going to be that person who was unlucky in love, and I think once that narrative is painted, it's hard to break. I'm a very confident person, but I've had very low self-esteem in the past, forming bad patterns and habits. And then I got to a point where I was just like, maybe that's never going to happen for me. And then it just did."

The actress, known for her roles as Charlotte Hinchcliffe on The Inbetweeners and her stint on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! joked about the stark contrast between her and her partner's workdays.

She shared: "So, comparing our days is quite funny. I'm like, 'What did you do today? How are the nuclear reactors? ' And he's like, 'yeah, good, how about you?', And I say, 'I tried to fit into some Spanx, and I couldn't.'

"So, in that way, we couldn't be more polar opposite, but we are so similar. We have the same sense of humour and find the same things hilarious. I'm glad I've ended up with somebody who knows me so well and understands me completely and understands my life and my world."

Emily and her partner Alistair have known one another since they were children. Her mum, actress Kate Robbins, even referred to her baby daddy as her 'nephew' in an unearthed social media post. Alistair’s step-mum is actually actress Kate’s sister, which makes the parents-to-be step-cousins. Emily's aunt Jane Garner is said to have met Alistair’s late dad Stephen Garner during the early nineties and they tied the knot in 1994.

Alistair is a graduate of the University of Manchester where he studied for his PhD. He has worked as a lecturer. The University Website states the doctor studied “Materials scientist and electron microscopist specialising in the degradation of high performance alloys for nuclear and aerospace applications”. He is now believed to work at the sustainability company Jacobs where he works as a Senior Consultant and Technical Lead for Core Materials.

Emily was first linked to Dr Alistair Garner in September 2023 as they were photographed together walking hand in hand while out and about in London and were said to have enjoyed an afternoon of drinking together. A source said at the time: "She had a cocktail and Alistair ordered a beer. Emily looked to be having a great time and couldn’t stop smiling. When they left they were holding hands.”

The romance has clearly blossomed since and the couple have now welcomed their child. A source told The Sun earlier this year: “Emily is delighted by the happy news and has been pleased to tell family and close friends about her little one on the way. It’s the perfect end to her year and she feels over the moon.”

The actress was regarded by many as a happy singleton who was looking for Mr Right - but she opened up about feeling lonely ahead of her pregnancy news. She said in August: "People think I fly the flag for all the single ladies, but I’m not afraid to admit being on your own is miserable a lot of the time. It’s pretty hard.

"There are times when I go out and I feel confident and sexy on my own and I’m independent. 'But there are times when I cry myself to sleep because it’s lonely and awful, and it’s OK to admit that, I think.

"Where I go wrong in life is that I’m known as confident, sexy and all those things, and that’s all great. And then the second that I’m in love, I’m absolutely pathetic. I go from being confident to being like, ‘Just have everything’, and that’s not on them, that’s all on me. That’s a lack of self care and self love. I have mountains and buckets of confidence but no self-esteem."

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