Ralf Little has confirmed his split from fiancée Lindsey Ferrentino by joining celebrity dating app Raya, and has already enjoyed a date with a British actress.
MailOnline revealed there were cracks in the relationship in April after American playwright Lindsey stopped wearing her wedding ring and the couple unfollowed each other on social media.
But by joining Raya, an app where “like-minded people” can connect, Ralf, 44, has cemented his single status and has been seen getting close to actress Shelley Lankovits, who also worked on Death in Paradise as an assistant director.
An audience member told MailOnline they spent a cosy evening at the Frog and Bucket comedy club in Manchester, where they were seen kissing and “acting like a couple”.
They said: ‘They were very affectionate together, sharing the occasional kiss; it seemed like they were more than just companions.
Ralf Little has confirmed his split from fiancée Lindsey Ferrentino (pictured) by joining celebrity dating app Raya after speculation mounted in April that they had ended their engagement.
“You could tell they were very much in love with each other and didn’t mind people seeing them. It was all very cozy.”
MailOnline has contacted Ralf’s representatives for comment.
Shelley, 32, has worked on Sky comedy Brassic and The Day of the Jackal, a TV series starring Eddie Redmayne.
She also works as a model and is currently listed with the Leeds-based agency Face Model and Casting.
The Royle Family star Ralf met Lindsey in 2015 when he appeared in her play Ugly Lies The Bone during its London run, which also starred his Death In Paradise predecessor Kris Marshall.
They began dating shortly after, Ralf moved to New York, where the Florida native resided, to live near Broadway, the city’s theater district, and proposed to her in 2018 using his grandmother’s ring.
The couple spent long periods apart due to their individual work projects, which meant that Ralf lived six months a year on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where Death in Paradise is filmed.
Lindsey stayed with him in the Caribbean on occasion and worked on several of his works, including his musical The Queen of Versailles.
Ralf cemented his bachelor status by signing up to celebrity dating app Raya, and was spotted enjoying a date with actress and assistant director Shelley Lankovits.
Shelley, 32, has worked on Sky comedy Brassic and The Day of the Jackal, a TV series starring Eddie Redmayne.
Since leaving Death in Paradise, Ralf has travelled to Thailand, without Lindsey, for a holiday, while she has visited Barcelona, St Martin and Barbados without her fiancé in recent months.
In September, Lindsey posted another post celebrating her 35th birthday by admitting that she was “further along than I thought in some areas. More ahead than in others.”
In fact, Lindsey’s career skyrocketed during her relationship with Ralf, who he referenced in a 2020 interview with The Mirror in which he joked that he was “obscenely jealous.”
He said: ‘If we ever wanted to be a power couple, I would have to up my game.
“His career is growing in a way that makes me feel simultaneously incredibly proud and obscenely jealous.”
In June of last year, during an Instagram Q&A, Ralf admitted that spending time away from Lindsay (and their dogs) was difficult.
He said: ‘I miss my dogs, but the dogs are in America, so I miss the dogs and I miss my other half.
‘But first of all, people come to visit me and secondly, I’m very busy and I’ve built a life here.
“I’m the kind of person who is very present wherever I am. So I’m here, this is what I do and I’m lucky enough to really enjoy what I do. So yes and no.”
But that same month, their abundance of lovey-dovey social media posts suddenly stopped and they have not referenced each other since.
Tellingly, in one post, Yale-trained playwright Lindsey spoke of “a tough week, but lots of love,” accompanied by a series of heart emojis, prompting a family friend to reach out and assure her that she was “the perfect person.”
Three months later in September, Lindsey posted another post celebrating her 35th birthday by admitting that she had “come further than I thought in some areas. More than others,” implying that her burgeoning career was moving faster than her personal life.
After Death In Paradise ended after five seasons in December, Ralf appeared to be holidaying alone in Thailand, while Lindsey visited Barcelona, St Martin and Barbados without her fiancé.
And when Lindsey was in the UK in April working on her new London play, The Artist, which then played at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, there was again no mention of Ralf in any social media posts.
The British actor was touring the UK with his friend Will Mellor with their podcast Two Pints.
Last week, Ralf and Will confirmed they would be doing a new show together on the newly rebranded U and U&Dave channel later this year.
The series is titled Will & Ralf Should Know Better and promises to reveal a “conflictive bromance” that dates back more than two decades, when the pair starred in the BBC comedy Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
Speaking about the new project, Ralf said: This time we will be able to explore how we should live in the modern world while educating ourselves and laughing at the same time.
“I can’t wait to get started.”
Will added: ‘We’re both in our 40s and probably a bit set in our ways, so now is the perfect time to look at how we could improve our lives.
“Hopefully, we’ll come out of this better prepared for the modern world and, ideally, still whole.”
