Olivia Attwood has revealed she feared she was "moving too fast" with her boyfriend Pete Wicks as she processed her "awful" split from husband Bradley Dack. The 35-year-old presenter began dating her longtime friend Wicks, 37, earlier this year after it emerged that she and Dack had ended their marriage over claims he had been unfaithful.
Attwood and Wicks only confirmed their romance last month, and Attwood said pals had told her to "stay single" following the split. She told The Times: "It was unexpected, we went from platonic to non-platonic very quickly." She described Wicks as "extremely intelligent and compassionate and patient, all the things I desperately needed but didn't know I needed."
She added: "Is something amazing happening while I'm still processing something awful? Yes. People are telling me to be single, to go on dates. But if I shut things down with Pete I'd only be dating people to find the connection I have with him."
Starting a family
Attwood also said she had considered starting a family "with the right person" but had come to terms with the possibility she may not have children. She said: "I could also see it not being part of my story. I'm at peace with that. You can't have everything. So many parts of my life have worked out so much better than I could ever imagine."
Bradley Dack and Emily Maloney
Dack and his ex-girlfriend Emily Maloney are said to have quietly reunited following his split from Attwood in January, while Attwood was secretly seeing Wicks. Pictures of the pair together were obtained by the Daily Mail last month. On Friday, sources said the sale of the couple's £1million house showed the writing had been on the wall for the marriage for some time.
Attwood reacted angrily to the new photographs, branding Maloney Dack's "bit on the side" and calling her a "professional benchwarmer" in a series of posts. She suggested the pictures confirmed what she had long believed, that Dack had been seeing Maloney. Maloney denied being in a relationship with the Gillingham midfielder four months ago.
The Selfridges bender
Last week Attwood went on a seven-hour bender after teasing she would share "messy" screenshots about Dack. Her manager told her to be the "bigger person," so instead she went on a spontaneous day and night out, sipping champagne in Selfridges, buying Christian Louboutin heels and ending up at Freedom Bar in Soho.
She told fans: "So the screenshots are on pause because my manager wanted me to be the bigger person. So I'm going to have a spontaneous night out but I'm wearing Vans so obviously we're going to go and buy some shoes."
Why the marriage wasn't legally binding
Earlier this week, in her first interview since the split, Attwood addressed her decision not to make her marriage to Dack legally binding. The couple married in a lavish ceremony broadcast by ITV in 2023 but never legally tied the knot. She told Cosmopolitan she did not sign any papers to protect her fortune because the relationship began experiencing "teething issues" right after the wedding.
She said her sister had pointed out that if a man had been sceptical about his partner's honesty and hadn't legally bound himself to her, people would have praised him for it, whereas Attwood said she was criticised for doing the same thing. "Where would I be now [if we had signed?] It's been hard enough untangling our lives," she said.
The moment that ended the relationship
Attwood said she had been "living in a grey area" with Dack for years, blinded by love, until "everything suddenly lined up." She described the moment a woman exposed her then-partner's cheating on a night out, telling her he had "gone back with a random girl." That was the turning point that led Attwood to end the 12-year relationship in January after discovering his infidelities.
"There was nowhere left for him to hide. As soon as I knew it had happened to me, I couldn't stay. The only person I would be cheating is myself," she said.
