It is a notably unshowy moment from someone whose work has often dealt with grief, love, and the strange timing of both. Real life, annoyingly, still refuses to follow a neat script.
How did the relationship become public?
Davies appears to have first introduced the relationship publicly on Christmas Day, surprising fans who had not expected the personal update.
Since then, the couple have shared photos together, including images from a trip to Venice and a journey on the Orient Express. In the past week, Davies also posted a photo with Cole alongside David Tennant and Tennant’s wife, Georgia Tennant, captioning it: “A great night out with old friends.”
Reports in December claimed Davies had treated Cole to a birthday experience involving the Tardis, the time-travelling police box at the centre of Doctor Who. For anyone dating a Doctor Who showrunner, that is either a thoughtful gesture or occupational hazard, depending on your tolerance for cosmic furniture.
What have friends said about the couple?
A close friend told the Daily Mail in December that Cole had brought real happiness back into Davies’s life.
“Oliver has brought a great deal of joy into Russell’s life, and they make each other genuinely happy,” the friend said.
The same friend also addressed the couple’s 35-year age gap, saying it was not a problem for them.
“Despite the age gap, they’re very much on the same wavelength, this relationship feels like one for the long haul,” they said.
Davies has not framed the relationship as a grand public statement. His own comments are simpler than that: he sounds surprised, grateful, and aware of what it means to find companionship after loss.
Davies previously cared for his husband Andrew Smith
Davies was with Andrew Smith, a customs officer, for two decades. The couple entered a civil partnership in December 2012, walking down the aisle to “Mr Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra.
Smith was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2011 and was given a three per cent chance of recovery. Davies stepped away from work for two and a half years to care for him.
Smith died in September 2018 at the age of 54.
That history gives Davies’s latest comments their weight. His relationship with Cole is not presented as a replacement for what came before. It is, in his own words, a surprise, and a lovely one at that.
