Made in Chelsea’s Ollie Locke launching gay dating app to find love
The reality star has teamed up with Bumble to create Chappy, which will launch in early 2017
MADE In Chelsea’s Ollie Locke is launching a gay dating app after failing to strike up a romance of his own.
The reality star is working with his friend and business partner Jack Rogers to make Chappy – which they have teamed up with mainstream dating app Bumble to create.
Ollie, 29, came out as bisexual on the first series of the E4 show in 2011 before coming out as gay in July this year.
He told The Sun at the time: "It's the first time the viewers have seen me as gay instead of bi. I do say the words 'I'm a gay man.'
"I lived with a woman last year when I was off camera and we had two dogs together. Then when we broke up in December, I thought, 'That's it now, I think I'm gay.'"
Speaking about the app, Bumble’s founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe said: “Bumble has made great strides for women in the dating space and we believe Chappy will do the same for gay men – it’s everything we could wish for in a partner, we’re very proud to be supporting its debut.”
Original cast member Ollie left the show in 2013 before re-joining last year, with his own dating life well-documented on the show.
He has had notable relationships with Topshop heiress Chloe Green and former cast members Gabriella Ellis and Ashley James but has struggled to find love with a man on the show.
As well as Made in Chelsea, he has competed on Celebrity Big Brother and Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island.
Describing his new app in his own words, Ollie explained: “Chappy represents the future of gay dating and we’re thrilled to have an investor and partner as well versed in the market as Whitney and Bumble.
“In addition to fully understanding our ethos and mission to normalise gay dating, Bumble also knows the importance of an app fully recognising the needs of the user.
“We’re very proud to be working with Bumble.”