Austin Butler has put to rest speculation linking him romantically to Emily Ratajkowski after the two were photographed enjoying a dinner date in New York City.
“The true answer is that I have a lot of friends, and we’re friends, and we had dinner, and that we’re friends,” the 34-year-old Elvis star told Vanity Fair on Tuesday, emphasizing that he is currently single.
Butler admitted that intense public interest in his personal life once made him feel suffocated. “I just wanted to hide,” he said. “But now I think, am I going to live a constricted, small life because I’m afraid of what other people are going to say or what they’re going to think?”
The dinner took place in early September at the Waverly Inn in the West Village, where eyewitnesses told Page Six that Butler appeared engaged and attentive, with his arm around Ratajkowski as he nodded along to her conversation. According to sources, the pair made no effort to conceal themselves, sitting in a prominent half-booth at the center of the restaurant.
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While social media account Deuxmoi described the outing as “very giggly and cute,” TMZ noted that the duo showed little public display of affection during their roughly two-hour chat.
The pair was first linked in August when they were spotted together at the afterparty for the New York City premiere of Butler’s film Caught Stealing. This comes after previous rumors connecting Butler to his co-star Zoë Kravitz, which sources later confirmed were simply platonic.
Butler’s most recent public relationship was with model Kaia Gerber; the couple ended their three-year romance in January. Ratajkowski, 34, who shares a 4-year-old son, Sylvester, with ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, was last linked to musician Shaboozey in August 2024.
