Sebastian Croft has opened up about the three-year relationship and painful phone break-up that inspired his debut EP, while tabloid reports have identified his former partner as Heartstopper co-star Joe Locke — a claim neither actor has publicly confirmed.
Heartstopper star Sebastian Croft is turning his first major heartbreak into pop music.
The 24-year-old actor and musician, who now releases music under the name Bash Croft, has spoken candidly about a three-year relationship that ended with a phone call while he was performing in the stage production 4000 Miles in Chichester in 2023.
“It hurts, but also the truth is there’s not a good way to deliver news like that,” Croft said in a recent interview.
“For a long time, I was angry about the how. But the truth is, the thing that hurts is the why.”
Croft did not name his former partner.
However, British tabloid The Sun subsequently quoted an unnamed source claiming the relationship had been with his former Heartstopper co-star Joe Locke.
Neither Croft nor Locke has publicly confirmed that claim.
What has Sebastian Croft actually said?
Croft has been much more open about the relationship itself than about who the other person was.
He has described it as his first serious relationship and first major heartbreak, saying the experience became the catalyst for his forthcoming debut EP, The Great Forever.
“I used to joke when I was in my first relationship that I would either be with that person forever, or I’d go and write an album about it,” he told The Standard.
The second option apparently won.
Croft also revealed that the EP’s title came from something his ex used to say during their relationship.
“My ex used to say, ‘It’s going to be a Great Forever being together,’” he explained.
“But I kind of realised that The Great Forever is really that person will forever be my first love.”
That is Croft speaking directly about his life.
The identification of Locke as that former partner comes from separate anonymous-source reporting.
Reports claim the ex was Joe Locke
According to The Sun, an unnamed person described as familiar with the pair claimed Croft and Locke had been in a relationship for almost three years.
The source alleged that the two Heartstopper actors had deliberately kept the relationship private and that Locke ultimately ended it by phone.
The same source claimed The Great Forever was a phrase Locke had used during the relationship.
Other outlets have subsequently repeated those claims, sometimes presenting the relationship much more definitively.
But the original evidence remains an anonymous source.
Croft has not publicly said, “My ex was Joe Locke”, and Locke has not publicly confirmed the relationship or commented on the reported break-up.
For fans who spent years speculating about the pair, the reporting may feel like confirmation.
It is more accurately described as an unconfirmed report that aligns with some details Croft has independently shared about an unnamed former partner.
Writing through heartbreak
What is confirmed is how much the break-up shaped Croft’s music.
He says he has spent the past three years turning the emotional fallout into songs, gradually finding a sound distinct from the artists who initially inspired him.
His influences include Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Harry Styles and Robyn, but Croft says the EP has evolved as he has become more confident in his own voice.
“The EP has matured and found its footing as I have as an artist,” he said.
His recent single “Good Light” continues that theme, with Croft describing it as a song about romanticising an old relationship and wanting one last encounter with an ex.
Or, as he put it rather more efficiently: “In short it’s about sleeping with your ex.”
Relatable content.
He has been writing songs since childhood
Croft’s move into music is not quite the celebrity side project it might initially appear to be.
He has been writing songs since he was young, initially treating them more like private diary entries than material he imagined releasing publicly.
Music became particularly important while he was struggling with his sexuality at school.
Croft has spoken about attending a private boarding school near Oxford and being secretly involved with another male student before being outed.
“I had a really difficult few years,” he recalled.
He described being bullied and ostracised, ultimately leaving the school at 16.
The experience gives his later role in Heartstopper an uncomfortable resonance.
Croft played Ben Hope, whose secret relationship with Charlie Spring — played by Locke — is characterised by shame, fear and harmful behaviour.
Croft has said filming the series allowed him, in some ways, to revisit the school years he lost but within a supportive queer environment.
“I got to go back and redo what would have been my sixth form,” he said, describing being surrounded by people who made him feel safe and supported.
From Heartstopper to Bash Croft
Croft publicly identifies as queer and has increasingly made that identity part of his music rather than treating queer songs as a separate genre.
He has said he does not particularly want to make what gets categorised as “queer music”.
Instead, he wants to make pop music from a queer perspective.
“Queer people also fall in love, have heartbreaks, feel lonely, feel jealous,” Croft has said.
Those ordinary, universal emotions are now at the centre of The Great Forever.
He is also currently appearing on the second series of The Celebrity Traitors, while continuing to build his music career alongside acting.
A private relationship can stay private
The interest surrounding Croft and Locke is understandable.
They starred together in one of the defining queer television series of the past few years, were frequently photographed together and developed enormous individual fanbases.
But chemistry, photographs and years of fan speculation are not substitutes for confirmation about somebody’s private relationship.
Croft has chosen to tell audiences a substantial amount about his first love.
He has told us it lasted around three years.
He has told us it ended by phone.
He has told us it devastated him.
And he has told us that the person remains important enough to have inspired the title of his debut EP.
Who that person was is something Croft himself has still chosen not to say publicly.
For now, that distinction deserves to remain intact.
Besides, The Great Forever already sounds like it has more than enough tea in the lyrics.
