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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Amber Raiken

Who is Lykke Li? Everything to know about the singer and actor rumoured to be dating Brad Pitt

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Lykke Li is rumoured to be dating Brad Pitt, leaving fans wondering who the Swedish singer is and how the celebrity pair may have met.

Rumours that Pitt, 57, and Li, 35, are dating first began on the gossip site Deux Moi, after it was reported that the actor and a “Swedish singer” were spotted having dinner at a restaurant in Hollywood. An anonymous source later claimed while speaking with The Sun that Pitt had been with Li and that the pair are “secretly dating”.

However, another source declined the rumours in a statement to People, while claiming that Li is actually part of “a large group of artsy friends that [Pitt] enjoys hanging out with”.

Li, who also models and acts, is well known in the art world, as she first started her singing career in 2008 when she released her first EP, Little Bit. The same year, she debuted her first studio album, Youth Novels.

From there, her music career continued to progress, with the singer releasing her album, Wounded Rhymes, in 2011, and another album, I Never Learn, in 2014.

Li, whose music falls under the genre of indie-pop and electronic, took a hiatus before releasing her next album, So Sad So Sexy, in 2018. The following year, she released another EP called still sad still sexy.

While speaking with NME in 2019, Li, whose real name is Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, said that still sad still sexy wasn’t going to be her last EP, but acknowledged a possible end to her singing career may not be far off.

“I think I’m realising that I’m not a spring chicken anymore, and there are way younger, hungrier people around,” she said at the time. “I’m probably at the tail-end of my career so I really want to go out in style and do something that’s exactly what I want to do – which is music from the heart, and not care about anything else.”

In 2020, she released two singles: BRON and I Will Survive.

Aside from singing, Li is also an actor, having starred in her first film, Tommy, in 2014. In 2017, she made an appearance in the film Song to Song, starring Ryan Gosling.

Li is also a model, and has been signed to the agency Viva Model Management since 2012.

Along with her wide-ranging career, Li has a five-year-old son, Dion, who she shares with her ex-boyfriend, record producer Jeff Bhasker.

Speaking to Vogue in 2018, Li opened up about some of the challenges that come with juggling being a mother and going on tour.

“Coming home, seeing my son and being a part of his world of wearing Batman costumes – it’s amazing,” Li said at the time. “I used to think that I was sacrificing my full potential and when things didn’t go my way or when things didn’t happen that they were lost opportunities.”

“But I’ve realised now that everyone sacrifices something when you’re a parent,” she added.

Li also highlighted that learning “how to be a mother” was something that she had to “immerse”  herself in.

“You have one idea of how it’s going to be and in reality, it’s not at all what you expected,” she said. “It’s all a learning process where Dion highlights who I am and who I’m not – things I never knew about myself. He keeps grounded.”

Pitt is also a working parent, as the Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood star and his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, share six children together: Maddox, 20, Pax, 18, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, Vivienne, 13, and Knox, 11.

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