When you really boil it down, celebrities are just like us. They fall in love, suffer break-ups and endure the humbling process of swiping right on dating apps, probably at midnight and on national holidays – just like we do.
The difference, of course, is that no celeb worth their salt is trawling through Hinge, Tinder or Bumble. No, they've their own purpose-built dating app: Raya.
Orlaith Condon, host of the pop culture podcast 'Don't Quote Me', fills Claire Byrne in on your celebrity crush's go-to dating app.
David Harbour, who stars in Stranger Things, recently brought the app back into the spotlight by revealing that it was where he met his now-wife, Lily Allen, and if nothing else their charming and joy-filled wedding couldn't help but be an endorsement of the app.
Of course, Condon notes, there's an "incredibly vigorous acceptance process" to get onto it, and only 10,000 people are currently using it. Users can only join via an invite from someone already using the app, and from then on your application is reviewed by "hundreds of anonymous committee members", Condon adds.
There's speculation that your social media profiles play a role in whether you'll be accepted or not, with the acceptance rate sitting low at just 8%. Unlike other dating apps, you can't filter your matches by location but only by age and gender.
"Secrecy's a big part of the app, it's kind of like Fight Club, you don't talk about Raya outside of Raya", Condon says.
"But there have been other people who have spoken about getting kicked off the app, notably Irish comedian Joanne McNally. She met her partner on Raya and she has spoken about getting kicked off for screenshotting famous faces on there. I think she screenshotted Louis Hamilton and got a notification saying, no, you've broken the rules, out you go!"
Another high-profile instance of a celebrity being revealed as a possible user of the app came when Selling Sunset star Emma Hernan said she'd matched with Ben Affleck on the app. Condon recalls that it was a salacious revelation, especially after Affleck denied he was on the app, calling into question how believable Emma's story was.
She adds: "I've heard that there's people on there looking for thirds and all this mad stuff. I wouldn't be able to control myself with the goss. I'd have to share it."
Some other big names reported to use the app include Demi Lovato, Joe Jonas, Drew Barrymore as well as Olivia Rodrigo, who said she left the app because it was "too cringey".
Surprisingly, the subscription cost is quite low at just $9.99 a month, despite starting in 2015 by Daniel Gendelman, who founded the app at 34.
"He started it when he was studying in Israel, and 'raya' is actually the Hebrew word for 'friend', and that's where the idea came from. His whole concept was he wanted to create a space that was perfectly curated and intimate and [with] a small number of people, but everyone would be thoroughly vetted and it would be this dream dinner party-type vibe."
With this in mind, it can be used for friendships and networking, though realistically how many users are using it for that?
To listen to the full interview, click above.
