Inside Renee Zellweger, Ant Anstead’s ‘Celebratory’ Romance
Totally thriving! Renée Zellweger and Ant Anstead are in a great place ahead of their first anniversary as a couple.
“All is going well with Ant and Renee,” an insider exclusively tells Us Weekly of the Oscar winner, 53, and the former Wheeler Dealers host, 43. “They’re still very much in love with each other.”
The U.K. native recently gushed over his girlfriend in an Instagram post marking the one-year anniversary of their first meeting. “This just popped up in memories,” Anstead wrote on Saturday, April 23, alongside a photo of the duo on the set of his show Celebrity IOU: Joyride. “One year ago today! Sat on the back of a fire engine on the final day of filming having handed two amazing men a car as a thank you from Ren. Amazing what can happen in just one year.”
The Judy actress also celebrated her birthday on Monday, April 25, and her beau couldn’t resist another opportunity to toast his love. “Happy birthday to this beautiful lady,” he wrote in an Instagram Story alongside a black-and-white selfie of the twosome. “Ren you are PURE CLASS! I know how lucky I am.”
Though the Discovery+ personality occasionally gives fans glimpses of his romance with Zellweger on social media, the source notes that the couple “still like to keep their relationship private for the most part.”
As for how they celebrated their back-to-back special days, the insider says that “it will be low-key and very special” no matter what. “It’s a celebratory time for them.”
Last month, the Bridget Jones’s Diary actress opened up about how “serendipity” led to her relationship with Anstead. The Texas native became interested in the original version of Celebrity IOU after she saw an episode where Brad Pitt renovated his friend’s garage.
Zellweger wanted to do something similar for the nurses who cared for her friend and publicist Nanci Ryder, who died in June 2020. Instead of doing Celebrity IOU with the Property Brothers, however, she signed on for the Joyride spinoff starring Anstead.
She and the expert mechanic like to think that Ryder had a hand in bringing them together. “We do joke about that,” the Cold Mountain star told Harper’s Bazaar in March. “She’s always doing her best. It made me smile. It made me smile to think on this, yeah, the serendipity of it all.”
Earlier this month, Celebrity IOU hosts Jonathan Scott and Drew Scott joked that they were “directly responsible” for Anstead and Zellweger’s relationship. “Celebrity IOU: Joyride was actually not just about a car show giving back to people,” Jonathan, 43, joked during an Extra interview on April 13. “That was actually an undercover dating show to find Ant the love of his life.”
With reporting by Diana Cooper