He’s funny and rich but TV host turns to date app: Why can’t Graham Norton find love?

E IS the BBC’s biggest star, entertaining millions each week on the UK’s most popular chat show.

But off screen, TV host Graham Norton leads a much lonelier life and has even turned to a dating app to find love after years of heartbreak.

Dating ... Graham and, inset, ex-boyfriends Kristian Seeber and Trevor Patterson

Yesterday we revealed how the Irish comic, 52, had joined Tinder  the mobile phone phenomenon that allows users to seek out prospective suitors judged on their location, common interests and mutual friends.

TV chat host ... with Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch

The app, which boasts more than 50million users worldwide, lets people choose which strangers to woo based on their photos  swiping right for yes or left for no.

Each account is linked to a user’s Facebook page but does not feature their surname.
Once both parties swipe yes and “match”, they are free to exchange intimate messages with each other.

Graham’s profile features a shot of his tanned, grey-bearded face as well as snaps of him in full motorbike gear on a chopper and drinking wine.

Yesterday, following The Sun’s story, he tried to make the best of the situation by sharing a message posted by Nick Grimshaw’s BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show’s official Twitter account, saying: “We’d swipe right for @grahnort.”

The Midas Tux ... with ex Trevor Patterson

By offering himself up for romance to the very same members of the public who are glued to his chat show week in and week out, the star has provided a stark insight into his surprisingly lonely life.

Graham, worth £27million, has struggled to hold down a long-term relationship despite an extensive list of boyfriends and admirers.e turned to Tinder in the summer, after splitting from his boyfriend of five months, music marketing consultant Andrew Smith, 36.

In a recent chat on Radio 2, where he broadcasts a weekly show, he admitted he would rather be alone for the rest of his life “than live with towels that were folded incorrectly”.