NEED TO KNOW
Rose Gray and Harris Dickinson have cracked the code on making young love last.
The English pop artist, 28, and the Babygirl actor, 29, have been in a relationship since they met in secondary school — long before they were touring the world and appearing on the big screen, respectively.
But even through their changing professional lives, they’ve found a way to keep the relationship strong. “I mean, I kind of don’t know any different,” Gray tells PEOPLE.
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“I think it’s been beautiful to observe from afar — not from afar, from close, and see it blossom,” she says of Dickinson’s career. “Also, I think traveling a lot and not always being together has been really powerful. But yeah, it’s been a ride.”
The secret to their lasting romance? “I think distance really makes the heart grow fonder,” explains Gray. “I don’t care, I know that’s classic, but it does. It really works. And just having your own thing.”
The “Free” singer and Dickinson (who share a cat, Misty Blue) have also worked together. He directed two of her music videos: 2019’s “Blue” and 2023’s “Afraid of Nothing.”
In a 2023 interview with Hunger Magazine, Gray spoke about blending their artistic backgrounds for music videos. “I come from a music world, and a lot of my videos to this day have felt quite nostalgic and ’90s, and some of them are quite lo-fi,” she said at the time.
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“Harris comes from a real cinema background, and I think the combination of us both just brought about this really interesting premise. It feels like a little film,” added Gray of “Afraid of Nothing,” in which she stars as a runaway bride.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Dickinson spoke about working with his significant other — and said Gray’s not afraid to tell him like it is.
“It’s also testing for a relationship because you’ve got to open yourself up to a different kind of dynamic,” he said. “But it definitely helps with the closeness because you can get to things quicker without that sense of carefulness and trepidation around being offensive.”
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Dickinson continued, “We’re so close that we can just be very direct. And I think she was the same with me, where if I had a crap idea, she’d say, ‘No, we’re not doing that.’”
Gray’s debut album, Louder, Please, was released in January. She dropped a reimagined version of the track “Everything Changes (But I Won’t)” with Shygirl and Casey MQ on Aug. 1.
The “Wet & Wild” performer is currently opening for Kesha’s Tits Out Tour in North America.
