"I just don’t find it enjoyable, all the celeb stuff."

That line pretty much sums up Olivia Cooke's life, in the public eye at least. The House of the Dragon actress keeps her personal life as hidden as she can.

The actress did not even have social media accounts until very recently. And when she finally started an Instagram, she did it not to socialize or share anecdotes from her personal life, nor to advertise her work.

Instead, it was to find a boyfriend. That was her first attempt at online dating that she has talked of.

The Time Olivia Cooke Used Instagram to Find a Boyfriend

If you go to Cooke's official Instagram now, you will find that the first post she made there came on March 14, 2022. So, her official Instagram was, we suspect, not the one she used to find a suitable partner.

Her attempt at Instagram dating happened in 2020, when all the world was shut down because of COVID.

During her November 2020 interview with Square Mile, she confessed she felt "lonely" like everyone else and started an Instagram to find someone to talk to.

Olivia Cooke once started an Instagram just to find a boyfriend.

Olivia Cooke (Photo: Olivia Cooke/Instagram)

"I was lonely and single at the time and thought I could slide into someone’s DMs," she told the publication. "I used it as a dating app, very unsuccessfully. Didn’t really understand how it worked."

She had had decent success in dating before this, even without the help of digital media. Rumor had it, she had just gotten out of a relationship before embarking on her short-lived online dating journey.

Or maybe she is still trying? Only Cooke could tell you that as there have been no rumors about her dating life as of late.

Olivia Cooke’s Dating History

Right before she resorted to Instagram, she was rumored to be in a relationship with English actor Ben Hardy.

The two apparently hit it off after working together on Pixie, a 2020 crime comedy. Their first public spotting came around February 2020, right before the lockdowns hit the UK.

Their romance was short-lived, mostly because of the lockdowns, according to sources. The Sun reported on their potential break up on August 9, 2020, quoting insider sources that said the couple simply drifted apart.

"Olivia and Ben were smitten to begin with but the intesity soon fizzled out," the source claimed. Career reasons were also given — "They’re at pivotal points in their acting careers and just couldn’t make it work."

Before Hardy, Cooke reportedly dated Christopher Abbott for around a year, from 2015 to 2016. They appeared on red carpets of many award ceremonies and public functions together, which people took as a confirmation of their courtship.

However, neither of them commented on the rumors, and they disappeared after a while.

In June 2015, the British actress talked about how she had a supportive boyfriend who helped her get through self-image issues. She developed a lack of self-confidence after shaving her head for a cancer patient role in Me And Earl And The Dying Girl (2015).

Going through the events' timeline, it appears Cooke was talking about Alex Roe, the man she was with before Abbott.

The two sparked conversations about a budding romance after attending an Arctic Monkeys concert together in August 2014. In their paparazzi pictures, Cooke only had a buzz cut.