James Norton is smitten, so let’s hope new beau Charlotte Rose Smith likes double denim! Happy Valley star, 39, steps out with Prada mannequin girlfriend, 25, a 12 months after his break up from ex-fiancée Imogen Poots

A year on from splitting with former fiance Imogen Poots, James Norton appears rather smitten with a new model girlfriend 14 years his junior.

Norton has been dating aspiring artist and Prada model Charlotte Rose Smith for a ‘few months’, according to insiders, and yesterday they enjoyed a carefree stroll near his north London home.

Dressed in double denim and a trendy £20 pink Meow Wolf baseball cap, Norton appeared relaxed and happy with Ms Smith, 25 as friends said ‘they make a great couple’.

Norton, 39, famous for playing psychopathic Tommy Lee Royce in BBC One drama Happy Valley, split from actress Ms Poots last year after they had met on the set of another BBC classic, War And Peace, in 2017.

Despite getting engaged in 2022, Norton later admitted work commitments had taken their toll on his relationship with Ms Poots.

He added: ‘If the work starts to compromise one’s relationships, it can become unhealthy. Suddenly you realise you haven’t left any space for other people and so I was p***ed off with that.’

Reflecting on their break up in a recent interview, he said he ‘didn’t carry regret’, adding: ‘Some choices recently weren’t mine, yet I don’t feel begrudging. Maybe next year I’ll have a family and a relationship.’

Charlotte Rose is a British model and emerging self-taught artist based in North London.

With over 300,000 Instagram followers, the model has worked with designer brands including Prada, Jo Malone, Bulgari, Polaroid, Coach, and Mango. 

However, Charlotte’s main passion is art and her work has featured in numerous gallery presentations and exhibitions across multiple countries. 

Following in her mother’s footsteps, who is also an artist, Charlotte picked up the paint brush during lockdown and her latest art series sees her apply Shakespearean themes to common cigarette branding.

In a recent interview the star admitted painting is her only hobby, and she paints so much she forgets to eat. 

The star admitted she is obsessed with Huel protein shakes as they mean she doesn’t have to cook but still fuels herself with the energy to paint more.

She also confessed she only models and does social media so she can earn money to paint. 

Discussing how she uses her social media to create her personal brand she explained: ‘I do kind of use that to my advantage, as well. I use social media as a tool, and a little bit controversially, I use my sexuality as a tool to sell my art, but sex sells, I guess. 

‘It’s a part of me, I’m being authentic in the things that I post. I’m showing my process and dancing around the studio, because that’s actually what I do. But yeah, I am aware that it’s part of the interest- it’s not just my work, but the interest in the idea of this Charlotte Rose character.’

Talking about how she has used social media to help her art she explained: ‘Early on, I hired a space in central London, curated a whole show, and sold it out, completely independently, and I was only able to do that because of social media.’

Her social media presence has brought her work to the attention of collectors such as Yungblud, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and BrewDog founder and CEO James Watt.

She has also merged both her modelling and artist career to work on campaigns for Gucci, Missoma, and Korean fashion house Yuul Yie.

If she wasn’t an artist, Charlotte says she would be a novelist as she also has a love for writing, literature and poetry. 

She has a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing, graduating in 2019, her Instagram account shows. 

Sparking romance rumours with James, an insider told The Sun: ‘They have been enjoying dates and seem very happy together.

‘It has been a year since his relationship with Imogen ended and he appears to get on so well with Charlotte. They make a lovely couple.’

MailOnline has contacted James and Charlotte’s reps for comment. 

This is James’s first public romance since ending his six-year relationship with Imogen.

The pair met in 2017 while working on War and Peace. They became engaged in 2022 but parted ways last year.   

James – who is best known for playing killer Tommy Lee Royce in three seasons of Happy Valley – and Imogen went their separate ways before Christmas, with their split being announced in February.