Celebs Go Dating’s Tom Read Wilson on why he’s happy being single: ‘I like to date myself'

As the receptionist on the reality dating show Celebs Go Dating, Tom Read Wilson is only too familiar with the ups and downs of dating, however, he’s himself is happy being single and dating himself.

Speaking on White Wine Question Time, the actor said he loves nothing more than taking himself out on a date.

“I really advocate things like what I call ‘dating myself’ where I kind of take myself out for a really lovely meal or to the BFI or to the National Theatre,” he told host Kate Thornton.

Listen: Tom Read Wilson talks about auditioning for The Voice and how he found fame

One of the tips he would give anyone looking for love is that enjoying your own company is a major part of finding love.

He said: “I think that if you really do – and it's not just a kind of a metaphysical thing, it's actually a science of getting to like your own company – then you're very well placed for somebody to enter your life because they're not anything more to you. They're not your, your counsellor or your crutch – they're just your paramour, which is heaven.”

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In the past, the star who is currently appearing on Celebrity Best Home Cook, has confessed to being a serial dater and said it took him a while to realise that being himself was the best thing he could do when it came to finding love.

He told Pink News: “I realised what I was attracted to in other people were often the curiosities and idiosyncrasies and the nuances. I thought, “Why on earth am I trying to censor myself or edit myself to get rid of those? Those should be the bits I’m celebrating.”

"That’s the most liberating notion. The person that’s going to fall for you is going to fall for all of those delicious curiosities.”

After working on 10 series of Celebs Go Dating, Read Wilson also reckons that most people in relationships are simply very unhappy.

“I feel that maybe a third of the country is in relationships, that they're not wildly happy about because they don't know how to be out of them,” he said.

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He continued: “I think that actually being truly independent and realising that you are a complete moist Madeira cake on your own. If a loving gentleman came along, he would not be the egg to your batter, he would merely be the icing.”

The TV star, who first found fame on The Voice, said as he’s got older his dreams have changed somewhat and now he’s just truly grateful for what he has.

“I think as a teenager, my great dream was to be clutching a Tony at 20 – not a boy, the Tony Award!” he laughed.

“I think one just becomes much more grateful for what one has as opposed to the kind of grand design. I think I've recognised it is just that and I think I've never felt it more than now.

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“Because of my life in the theatre — most of my friends are still in the artistic community and most of them are thespians — and you know that that struggle. How could one not be so grateful for one's lot when you see how difficult it is for everybody in the arts at the moment? I just think my goodness, I'm so lucky.”

Hear Tom Read Wilson talk about his love of words and why Rob Beckett has become his best mate in the latest episode of White Wine Question Time. Listen now on iTunes and Spotify.

Watch: Tom Read Wilson reveals the strangest date he's ever been on