After five years together, Sam Thompson and Zara McDermott have called time on their romance separated.
The pair seemed to be a power couple and there had even been speculation there would be wedding bells in the near future. However, the reality TV duo are no more after spending the festive period apart.
Over the half a decade they spent as an item, the couple built a home together next door to Sam’s sister Louise and her fiancé Ryan Libbey. They also share two cats together – Albus and Cedric. And it’s reported that Sam had never truly forgiven Zara for cheating on him near the start of their relationship.
Shortly after it was revealed former Love Island and Strictly Come Dancing star Zara had cheated on Sam in 2019, the pair chose to make another go of things. It came after Zara issued a grovelling apology on our TV screens. But how did Sam discover his girlfriend had been unfaithful?
How Sam Thompson found out Zara McDermott cheated on him as couple split after five years
In the 2019 edition of The X Factor: Celebrity, it was revealed that Zara cheated on Sam with Brahim Fouradi, a music industry executive who has worked on talent shows such as The X Factor as part of his duties as A&R director at Simon Cowell’s company Syco. It’s understood this breach of trust had a profound effect on Sam.
Sam ended their 16-month relationship in September 2020 after he got wind of her affair with Brahim. A source close to Zara admitted at the time that Sam had been suspicious of how much time she was spending with the music mogul and eventually discovered their romance.
“Sam suspected quite early on that something was going on between Zara and Brahim, and there was a big confrontation,” the insider told The Sun in 2020. “She was spending increasing amounts of time with him backstage, and hanging around after hours. Sam found out and kicked off. He’s devastated about how things have turned out.”
Zara admitted previously to cheating on Sam
The pair split up after five years (
Image:
samthompsonuk/instagram)
Zara admitted to being unfaithful in now-iconic scenes shown on the E4 reality show, aired in 2020. The Made In Chelsea scene remains one of the show’s most memorable moments as Zara’s affair with an X Factor boss came to light. While seated on a park bench, Zara can be seen begging Sam’s forgiveness, telling him: “I have no justification for anything, the way that I’ve behaved, the way that I’ve acted, the things that I’ve done. It’s just disgusting. I just want you to forgive me.”
At the time, Sam was widely criticised for accepting Zara’s apology and taking her back, while Zara also faced abuse online for her actions. In 2022, Zara revealed her and Sam were “hanging on by a thread,” telling her co-star Jamie Laing she thought they would be coming to an end after her infidelity 16 months into her relationship with Sam. When the news was announced they had broken up, a source allegedly close to the couple told MailOnline: “Sam and Zara have ended their relationship.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult decision for them to part ways, they still care and have a lot of love for each other. But after a tough year of working hard at their romance, they have split and will be focusing on their individual careers going forward into 2025. There has been no scandal or fallout between them, it’s just the result of a difficult year, where they both had to spend a lot of time focused on their own projects.”
