Adolescence star Erin Doherty has split from her partner Sophie Melville, five years after going public with their romance.
The couple first met in 2017 when they were starring in The Divide, a play written by Alan Ayckbourn, and posted their first snap on Instagram together two years later.
Erin, 32, who starred as Briony Ariston in the smash hit Netflix series, no longer follows Sophie on social media, with sources telling MailOnline that their relationship is over.
Sophie, 34, is best known as Iphigenia in the one-woman play Splott, and has also appeared in Call The Midwife, and BBC drama The Pact.
Erin stars alongside Stephen Graham in the Netflix one-shot drama Adolescence, which centres on schoolboy Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper), who is accused of murdering a girl, and has been universally praised by critics and viewers.
Erin had previously branded her relationship with Sophie her ‘greatest accomplishment’, and just last week, she shared how she finally came to terms with her sexuality after years of being left ‘unsatisfied’ dating men.
Adolescence star Erin Doherty has split from her partner Sophie Melville, five years after going public with their romance (pictured in 2019)
The Crown star said she’d been been a ‘people pleaser’ and had boyfriends in a bid to fit in, before one ‘mind-blowing’ relationship with a woman changed everything.
Speaking on the How To Fail podcast she said: ‘It was mind blowing and it felt like I had come home, I was just like “Wow, this is a part of who I am that I’d never got to meet” which was just so crazy’.
Erin went onto discuss her sexuality saying: ‘It took me a really, really long time to finally get to the point where I was like “Oh, I’m gay”‘.
‘But I think, again, because I grew up doing the social thing of going: “Oh, OK, well, I’ll have a boyfriend and I’ll do this thing” and I never questioned it’.
She continued: ‘I never really was ready to carve out that path for myself, even though looking back, I always knew that my relationships with men weren’t satisfying in that whole hearted way that I wanted them to be.’
Erin, who also starred as Princess Anne in The Crown, noted that the relationship with Sophie was her ‘proudest accomplishment’ but insisted they ‘never went up for the same roles’.
She told Porter in 2022: ‘She’s made me so healthy. I used to sit at home eating a bag of chocolates and now we have like, a kale salad.’
That same year, Erin also admitted it was ‘gutting’ to even question the idea that going public with her girlfriend would jeopardise her having a successful career.
The couple first met in 2017 when they were starring in The Divide, a play written by Alan Ayckbourn, but didn’t make their relationship Instagram official until two years later
Erin stars alongside Stephen Graham in the Netflix one-shot drama Adolescence, which has been universally praised by critics and viewers
The star, who played Princess Anne in the third and fourth series of The Crown, opened up about her own experience as she reflected on how difficult it must’ve been for women in the royal family to express their sexuality.
Erin, who is happily in a relationship with fellow actress Sophie Melville, remarked: ‘I felt a lot of pressure to withhold my sexuality.’
Speaking to The Telegraph, Erin detailed how landing the role of the Princess Royal made her reluctant to be fully open about her sexuality for fear of her future acting career, admitting it was disheartening that the thought even crossed her mind.
She said: ‘I’m not gonna lie, I won’t name names, but when I got The Crown, I felt a lot of pressure to withhold my sexuality.
‘There was a period of time when I was like, do I get to be open about this in order to have a successful career? And the fact that that question still went through my mind, and may still go through other people’s minds, is so gutting.’
She continued: ‘I’m really aware of all the people who have lived years and years and years, either in shame or denial, or just hiding – actors, actresses definitely stopping it getting out there in order to have a career – and I just want to be a part of trying to do something about that.’
Erin had previously branded her relationship with Sophie her ‘greatest accomplishment’, and just last week, shared how she finally came to terms with her sexuality
However, Erin didn’t post a snap of the pair together on her Instagram until 2019.
She then went on to reflect how gay actors in the past may have been reluctant to play romantic leads in films and productions, with Erin – who has do far only played straight roles – stating that it was ‘shocking’ that someone could say ‘Oh, but you’re gay, so you can’t play straight’.’
After gaining much critical acclaim for her portrayal of the late Queen’s only daughter, Erin put herself in the shoes of Anne and told how Anne would have been ‘aware’ that she would have come under scrutiny if she had been as open about her love life as her male counterparts.
She also remarked that Anne was ‘constantly aware of comments on her physicality’ and that she then used this as a ‘catalyst’ for her strong-willed and unpretentious nature, adding that the Princess will likely remark: ‘I don’t care’ to criticism.
