British TV host Alison Hammond has gone public with her new, younger boyfriend – a 6’10 Russian masseur, who is also a model and dancer.
The 49-year-old presenter has grown close to David Putman, who is around 20 years her junior, reports The Sun.
He had already won an army of fans online before getting together with the star of UK mid morning show This Morning by posing for near-naked snaps in Armani pants as well as other risque images.
Mr Putnam studied as a body therapist offering, “classic, lymphatic drainage, anti-cellulite, wraps, facial massage” and his services are still advertised on a Russian website.
He has relatives in Brighton, on England’s south coast, and is proud of his Russian heritage, posing in national dress while competing in youth choirs in his home city of Krasnodar in the country’s south near Ukraine.
In 2020, he wore military uniform and held a giant red flag commemorating veterans in Sochi, a Russian city on the Black Sea, where he studied — a six-hour drive from his birthplace.
Another image showed him in military garb, including black boots and a bearskin hat.
He was participating in a memorial seemingly paying respects to supreme commanders of Cossack armies, which originated in southern Russia.
Last November, Hammond hinted at their romantic relationship by liking one of Mr Putnam’s posts on social media.
He regularly shares images of his jaunts around London and has attended pro-Palestinian marches through the capital.
In February he was in Rome and three months earlier in Paris, posting snaps of his trips.
Mr Putnam, understood to be in his early to mid-20s, has other family connections dotted across the UK, including in Slough, west of London, and Telford, near the Welsh border.
His Libyan-born father — also David Putnam — is understood to have married a Russian woman after his first wife died.
Hammond’s partner has brothers Apollo, currently in Brighton, and Russia-based artist Sviat, who lives in Sochi and trained at the Academy of Fine Art in St Petersburg.
The model also has half-brother Kristarphor and half-sister Kerrie.
He is not much older than Hammond’s son Aiden, 19, who yesterday announced he will be appearing as a DJ at Camp Bestival music festival in Dorset, a country in south west England, in July.
An insider told The Sun: “Alison has never been happier. She has had a turbulent love-life, but is finally confident she has found a trusted companion”.
The Birmingham-born star confessed she felt like a “failure” after splitting from her ex-husband, Aiden’s dad.
The presenter frequently updates fans on her love-life.
Around the time she was liking Mr Putnam’s snaps on social media last year, during a chat on UK panel show Loose Women over who enjoys the most “jiggy jigs”, she said: “How’s Birmingham doing? I reckon we’re up there, I really do”.
And she giggled: “Well I am.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.