Orlando Bloom revealed he met future fiancée Katy Perry coming off a six-month period of celibacy.
The “Lord of the Rings” star is getting candid about intimacy for a new interview with Britain’s The Sunday Times, in which he reveals that he did “completely nothing” sexually for half a year.
Bloom, 43, explained that after admitting to a close friend that he “wasn’t happy,” she suggested he abstain from all sexual behaviour if he wanted to make a long-term relationship a priority.
“If you want to be serious about a relationship, go celibate for a few months and figure it out,’” Bloom recalled his friend telling him. “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.’”
The actor assumed that staying celibate would be challenging given his dating history as a “pretty boy” who “loved women,” as sex previously got in the way of building meaningful relationships.
But Bloom exceeded even his own expectations.
“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,” he told the outlet. “I know that sounds crazy.”
When asked if he indulged in pornography, Bloom hinted that he “didn’t even” masturbate at the time.
“Completely nothing,” he recalled. “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.”
In fact, Bloom has a firm anti-pornography stance, calling it “super-disruptive to your sex life, to your libido” and childhood development.
But everything changed when Bloom crossed paths with Perry at the 2016 Golden Globes and applied the lessons he’d gleaned from his celibacy stint.
“We actually hung out and connected,” Bloom said of the fateful night with Perry. “She’s very surprising. She’s witty and smart and intelligent. She’s charismatic, but she’s direct, too, and this dynamic was intriguing to me.”
The two, who’ve been dating on and off since 2016, got engaged on Valentine’s Day last year and announced this month that they are expecting their first child together. Perry staged the reveal via the music video for her new single, “Never Worn White.”
“This kind of joy isn’t something you can put into words ― or really wrap your head around,” Bloom said of the pregnancy. “Obviously, we’ve known for a long time before going public. As you can imagine, it’s such an incredibly precious, private, yet commonplace moment to be sharing with the world.”
Bloom is already father to his 9-year-old son Flynn, whom he shares with ex-wife Miranda Kerr.
The actor and the pop star were to wed sometime early this summer in Japan, but have since reportedly put their plans on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak.