EASTENDERS star Dean Gaffney says his 22-year-old twin daughters have banned him from dating younger women — because he keeps hooking up with girls their age.
The newly single actor, 41, best known for playing Robbie Jackson in the BBC1 soap, split with his stunning blonde 25-year-old model girlfriend Rebekah Rose-Ward because she was sick of feeling like a “a trophy on his arm’.
The telly star is a doting father to his blonde twin daughters Charlotte and Chloe, who he had with ex partner Sarah Burge.
Speaking for the first time since his split he said: “I’m only dating women in their thirties now. I don’t want to go out with someone the same age as my daughters, it’s weird for them.
“I’m looking for a mature relationship, I’m in my forties and I don’t want someone too young.”
The telly veteran, who found fame on Albert Square aged just 15, was spotted boozing with pals on Sunday night at celeb hotspot The Prince, in West London, with pal ex rugby player pal Thom Evans, 34, and Made In Chelsea’s Frankie Gaff, 24.
An onlooker said: “Dean was surrounded by his mates and seemed in great spirits, he was originally cut him about his split from Rebekah, but he’s feeling positive about the future and wants to settle down for good now. He’s grown up a lot and wants to be in a relationship that reflects that.
“Dean has come on leaps and bounds from a few years ago when he admitted in 2015 to being hooked on bedding women with big boobs.
Speaking then he said: ” Women were my drug and now, looking back, I’m ashamed of my past. How many times did it happen? I couldn’t put a figure on it.
“When it came to women, I definitely had a type. It’s well known I liked a woman with a well formed upper body. “But I’m in no way proud of what I did.”
Dean’s top spots for picking up women were not the bright lights of London but towns like Bognor and Skegness, where he didn’t have to compete with famous footballers for attention.
He added: “The further you go outside the M25, the more impressed people are.
“Women would just walk up to me in nightclubs and make it clear they wanted a good time. With 20million people watching me on EastEnders, they wanted to sleep with me.”
