“I don’t know where I’d be without her:” Paul Mescal chats new girlfriend in candid new interview

The Normal People actor is officially off the market.

Paul Mescal has been chatting about his girlfriend in his latest candid interview for GQ. The star, who made a name for himself earlier this year on the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People, revealed this week that he is, in fact, in a relationship. Speaking in the latest issue of GQ, the actor said that his unknown girlfriend has been “a lifesaver" amidst the chaos of his newfound fame. “To have someone to lean on through such a mad, mad time has been invaluable,” he said. “Really, I don’t know where I’d be without her.” Emmy nominated Mescal, from Maynooth, Co Kildare, added that despite the experience that the series gave him, the level of sudden fame he was catapulted into was, at times, "brutal." “Very, very quickly, pretty much overnight, there were people following me to the shops with cameras," he said. “It’s a very steep learning curve and not one I mastered immediately at all. “It was a very interesting setting in which to learn the rules of being of public interest, for sure. “[It was] brutal, if I am honest with you. Totally brutal. “At first you think, ‘Oh, this is a bit glamorous,’ when someone is taking a picture of you buying ready-to-eat avocados and cigarettes at the off-licence, but soon enough you feel it begin to infiltrate your brain.” Mescal has been linked to several famous faces since his stint on the TV show including co-star India Mullen and US singer, Phoebe Bridgers. During the first lockdown, he told the I'm Grand Mam podcast that he was looking forward to dating again. "I'm trying not to think of how different it's all going to be now that people have seen Normal People," he said. "I'm trying not to think of it being weird because I think, we've been in lockdown for months and I've had no opportunity to meet somebody new or being remotely intimate with anybody."