Katy Perry, whose comeback single Woman’s World is due for release on July 11, still seems to have a blissfully happy relationship with husband Orlando Bloom. Demonstrating that they are still very much in love, the couple returned this week to the same Italian beach where Orlando famously paddle-boarded naked back in 2016.
However, the 39-year-old – who shares four-year-old daughter Daisy with the Lords of the Rings actor – hasn’t always been lucky in love. One of Katy’s first-ever boyfriends, way back before she became famous and in the days when she and her pastor parents were “living off food stamps” and visiting soup kitchens, was Justin York.
A teenager at the time, the Firework singer had been desperately trying to find her way in the music industry – and she’d just released a Christian music album, but it flopped, reportedly selling just 200 copies. Justin – who went on to be a guitarist in Paramore for 12 years – dated her for a year, when she was 17.
She also dated Matthew Thiessen, the leader of a Christian rock band, followed by Sons of Anarchy star Johnny Lewis, but neither romance lasted the distance. As her star began to rise, she appeared in Gym Class Heroes’ music video, Cupid Chokehold in 2006 – and ended up falling for one of the band members, Travie McCoy.
However, perhaps her first truly high-profile relationship was with British comedian Russell Brand – a passionate love affair which led to the pair tying the knot in India atop an elephant. The ceremony, held within a Rajasthan nature reserve where tigers were prowling, featured a baby elephant whose appearance was timed with when Russell arrived.
Russell didn’t do anything by halves, as he reportedly laid on a lavish Bollywood banquet with fireeaters, snake-charmers and a baby tiger as a gift for his bride.
As Jonathan Ross and David Walliams looked on, a fortune-telling parrot assured the newlyweds that their marriage would be a long one.
Unfortunately, the parrot was proved very wrong, as the pair filed for divorce a little over a year later.
Russell claimed in a statement that he would “always adore” her, but Katy later suggested they’d split because he “couldn’t handle” being with his equal.
“At first when I met him, he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, ‘I can’t handle the equalness’,” she told Vogue.
She also suggested that he “didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour”.
However, Katy concluded she’d never reveal all of “the truth” about her life behind the scenes with the man who once regarded himself as the most “promiscuous” in Britain.
Following her split, she reportedly dated French model Baptiste Giabiconi, actor Jared Leto, and Houston rapper Riff Raff.
She also had an 18-month relationship with John Mayer, even collaborating on a song with him titled Who You Love.
However, she didn’t find lasting love until Orlando entered the picture way back in January 2016.
In 2019, he proposed to her on a champagne-filled helicopter to celebrate Valentine’s Day – and the rest is history.
Despite starting their journey in an extremely unusual way – with a blazing argument after he mischievously swiped her burger at the Golden Globes – they have since tied the knot and welcomed a daughter.
While Russell may have been allegedly unkeen to embrace his equal, it seems that Orlando was up for the challenge, and willing to meet his wife’s “demands”.
Talking on the What Now? with Trevor Noah show, he admitted: “She definitely demands that I evolve, and I feel I do the same for her – and that makes for fireworks, pardon the pun!”
