James Norton is "a man in London going on occasional dates"

He told the Guardian newspaper: "I've always tried to balance authenticity with privacy. "I want to be honest but I don't want to talk about my relationships at all and I don't like it when I get photographed with a friend walking down the street and it's then told the next day like it's a romance.

"Another romance! ... Look. I'm a man in London going on occasional dates, meeting people, living my life, and it's kind of no one's business really."

James recently opened up about the breakdown of his relationship with Imogen during a talk at the Glastonbury Festival earlier in the summer and he admitted he struggled to deal with the loss of his future plans.

He said: "I got broken up with and it was massive. I thought I was going to have kids. The life I thought I was going to have disappeared at 38."

The Happy Valley actor previously insisted he hasn't given up hope of having a family, despite the end of his engagement.

He told The Sunday Times newspaper: "Getting older is a struggle if you are freaking out about the choices you've made, but I don't carry regret. And, you know, some of the choices recently weren't mine, yet I don't feel begrudging. Maybe next year I'll have a family and a relationship ...

"You have a certain amount of control over your life and choices you make, and at other times you don't. But if you made those choices or not, it's a shame to spend time agonising over either."

Despite his desire to have children, James doesn't think it would have been "fair" for him to start a family in recent years.

He said: "I don't sit on set where I'm playing a dad and feel sad and broody. I love hanging out with kids - most of my friends have kids so I'm not quite in step with my peers - but the past few years have been the busiest I've been, so it would not have been fair to bring a child into that.

"Also, the inherently unfair benefit of being a man is there is less rush. I am lucky I can have kids later, so now I'm happy, actually, with my life. I feel really excited by the choices I've made."