I gave up sex for 6 months, then I met Katy Perry, says Orlando Bloom – The Sun

AFTER hunky young Orlando Bloom burst on to the Hollywood scene he found he could have just about any woman he wanted – and often did.

But after an A-list of brief conquests including Lindsay Lohan, Kate Bosworth, Sienna Miller and Kirsten Dunst, plus a three-year marriage to Aussie model Miranda Kerr, the actor was not happy with how his love life was going.

In 2016 he decided to follow a friend’s advice and go sex-free for six months and he loved it — but that ended when he met Katy Perry . . .

The couple are now engaged and expecting a baby and Orlando says: “She’s very surprising.

“She’s witty, smart and intelligent.

“She’s charismatic, but she’s direct, too, and this dynamic was intriguing to me.

“There’s Katy Perry and there’s Katheryn Hudson, her real name.

“Katheryn is the woman I’m really intrigued by.

“It’s like, ‘I’m a boy from Kent and you’re a girl from Santa Barbara’.

“That’s what I’m focused on, not the bells and whistles.”

He spoke openly about his love for the I Kissed A Girl singer during an interview to promote the second series of his Amazon fantasy drama Carnival Row, for which he is also an executive producer.

The 43-year-old Brit says it was American Katy’s straight-talking approach which captured his heart.

In the chat with Sunday Times Style magazine he revels in aspects of their down-to-earth life at home in Los Angeles, such as “what you talk about when you are passing the potatoes, or ‘What’s on the news?’ or ‘What are you reading?’ or ‘What are we watching?’ Or how we spend our Sunday.”

DEEPER CONNECTION

The couple’s baby will be 35-year-old Katy’s first child and Orlando’s second.

His marriage to Victoria’s Secret model Miranda, from 2010 to 2013, produced son Flynn, now nine.

After they split, Orlando hit the dating scene with a vengeance.

But he admits he had no true female friends, because there was often an element of sexual interest from either himself or the women he met.

He says: “If it wasn’t in my eye, it was probably in theirs.

“I was a pretty boy and I loved women.”

But with sex on tap failing to make him happy, in 2016 his friend Laird Hamilton, a Californian surfer dude, made his suggestion about giving up bedding women for a few months.

All of a sudden Orlando was able to go out socially without thinking about hooking up with the women he was meeting.

Instead he found he was making a deeper connection with the opposite sex.

He recalls: “Laird said, ‘If you want to be serious about a relationship, go celibate for a few months and figure it out’.

“It takes away the idea of going to a party and thinking, ‘Who am I going to meet?’ I was suddenly like, ‘Oh, I can have a relationship with a woman that is just friends’.

“I was going to do three months, but I was really enjoying the way I was relating to women, and to the feminine within myself. I know that sounds crazy.”

Even so, Orlando admits the strategy was not great for his libido.

He says: “It was insane.

“I don’t think it’s healthy.

“I don’t think it was advisable.

“You have to keep it moving down there.”

Along his path to sexual enlightenment, Orlando also came to realise the corrosive effect of porn.

The Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The Caribbean star believes easy access to adult material on the internet is damaging a future generation.

He says: “Porn is super-disruptive to your sex life, to your libido.

“They’ve done the studies, they can’t find any kids who don’t watch it.

“When you watch multiple people at multiple times in one evening, how is your actual real-life partner going to match up? It’s just so destructive.”

It was at a 2016 Golden Globes party when Orlando got chatting to Katy that he knew it was time to end his self-imposed ban on intimacy.

They had met previously but this time he says they “connected”.

And he famously didn’t do much to keep their relationship secret.

During a 2017 holiday in Italy he was photographed naked on a paddle board, with Katy a passenger.

The couple dated for a year before announcing at the end of February 2017 that they had split up.

Their separation lasted just over a year, during which Orlando made headlines by inviting Viviana Ross, a waitress at trendy London hotel Chiltern Firehouse, up to his room.

When a manager found her naked in the actor’s bed, she was fired for fraternising with a guest.

Despite such shenanigans, in April 2018 Orlando and Katy got back together with a romantic break in the Maldives.

And continuing with his newly invigorated romantic persona, he proposed on Valentine’s Day last year during a surprise, love-themed party.

He has introduced Katy to his son Flynn, who lives with Miranda and her new husband, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel.

Evan and Miranda probably won’t be happy to hear that when Orlando asked Flynn what was the difference between them and Katy and himself, his son replied: “You’re the fun couple.”

Katy has always been great with her young fans, but she had not been ready to start a family with her previous husband, Russell Brand.

SCHOOL RUN

She was only married to the British comic actor for two years before breaking up in 2012.

The baby she is having with Orlando, which she announced last week, was planned.

In typical showbiz fashion her pregnancy was accompanied by a music video for a new single, in which she displayed her growing baby bump.

She said: “I am excited, we’re excited, and happy.

“It’s probably the longest secret I’ve ever had to keep.”

Orlando thinks a pregnancy is a “precious” moment and he too is very excited about the prospect of becoming a dad again.

He says: “I love being a dad. I love spending time with my son.”

He does the school run when he is in Los Angeles and speaks to Flynn via FaceTime every day while he is working abroad.

He says: “I’m heartbroken that the show takes me away for such stretches.”

In the past he has turned down film roles so he can spend more time with Flynn, so determined to is he to enjoy the close relationship he missed out on with his own father, Colin Stone.

His wedding to Katy was originally scheduled for last September, but the dates were changed due to organisational problems.

Now the big day, which was rumoured to be taking place in Japan with 150 guests, is almost certain to be put back again.

Japan was one of the earliest countries to be hit by coronavirus and a travel ban would make it impossible for guests to attend.

Orlando, who gave the interview last month, said the “coronavirus might have a play in whether we put things on ice, because we’re going to be travelling and don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable.”