RICHARD EDEN: How Made in Chelsea star Liv Bentley’s new beau bowled her over… as she reveals she has been relationship former cricket star for 5 months
She’s bowed out of Made In Chelsea, making way for Muffin – that’s Julia ‘Muffin’ Pollard, of course – and other splendidly uninhibited newcomers now featuring in the latest series of the reality show, charting the lives and bedroom adventures of those for whom London’s King’s Road is the local high street.
But while fans of the ‘reality’ television show are starved of glimpses of Olivia ‘Liv’ Bentley, there is one male admirer who’s being treated to many more.
I can disclose that the lucky chap is Rory Hamilton-Brown, 37, a former cricket star who was propelled to the captaincy of Surrey at the precocious age of 22 – not that Liv, would have noticed.
Hamilton-Brown played rugby for Harlequins and England Juniors before deciding to concentrate on cricket.
‘I have never watched cricket in my life,’ Liv, 30, admits to me at Chelsea’s Glebe Garden Gallery which this week hosted the launch of Table 72: The Girl Without A Filter, written by Liv’s friend Michelle van Tulder.
But, as the saying goes, Hamilton-Brown bowled a maiden over.
He and Liv have, she tells me, been discreetly dating for the last five months – time enough, Liv assures me, for her to ‘get into’ cricket.
Rory Hamilton-Brown, 37, a former cricket star is dating made in Chelsea’s Olivia ‘Liv’ Bentley. Here the pair are pictured at the Glebe Garden Gallery on November 11
Liv (pictured) and Rory met at the Hurlingham club in Fulham. Liv is taking a break from Made in Chelsea to focus on her business
Liv was Made In Chelsea’s longest-serving star until leaving earlier this year to focus on her business, JOMO, which aims to break ‘taboos around sexual well-being and sensuality’
The all-rounder played for Sussex, Surrey (pictured) and Mashonaland Eagles during his playing career
It was while watching another sport that she first bonded with Rory, who was educated at £57,000-a-year Millfield School in Somerset.
‘We met at the Hurlingham [club in Fulham] one night during the Euros,’ explains Liv who was Made In Chelsea’s longest-serving star until leaving earlier this year to focus on her business, JOMO, which aims to break ‘taboos around sexual well-being and sensuality’.
‘We have mutual friends, but we had never met,’ Liv adds.
Hamilton-Brown knows all about the capriciousness – and cruelties – of fate. He enjoyed early success at Surrey, leading the side to promotion in 2011.
But in 2012 his teammate and housemate Tom Maynard – a friend since school – was electrocuted on a railway line and killed by a train, after fleeing police who’d stopped him for erratic driving.
Shattered by this tragedy, Rory left Surrey to play for Sussex. But a wrist injury forced him to retire in 2015 aged only 27.
