Sabrina

WHEN his relationship with pop star Sabrina Carpenter imploded 18 months ago, Barry Keoghan’s life was left in tatters amid allegations he cheated.

The award-winning actor, who is playing Ringo Starr in the hotly anticipated Beatles biopics, disappeared from public life after being relentlessly attacked online by Sabrina’s fans.

But last week, Dublin-born Barry stepped back into the limelight with a new woman on his arm.

And far from being a global superstar, she’s a down-to-earth Brit.

“Barry’s new girlfriend is Danica Hall,” a friend tells The Sun. ­“Compared to Sabrina she couldn’t be more low key.

“She was born in Staffordshire and moved to London a few years ago. She was working for a cosmetic surgery company on Harley Street.

“Danica — or Neeka as her mates call her — is well-connected through her work. She met Barry through mates and they started talking. It evolved into a romance and they’ve both been totally smitten.”

Saltburn and Peaky Blinders star Barry, 33, and Danica, 29, were photographed together for the first time last week. They were seen ­kissing while picking up coffees on a relaxed holiday in Barcelona.

Friends say the pair have been together officially for weeks, with those close to Barry telling The Sun that Neeka reminds them of Alyson Kierans, the mother of his three-year-old son Brando.

The 39-year-old dated Barry from 2021 to July 2023, five months before he was first linked to Sabrina.

“Alyson was a dental nurse when she met Barry,” a pal explains.

“She didn’t court the spotlight then and she certainly doesn’t now.

“Her relationship with Barry may be over but they will share their son forever. She is a devoted mother and caring for Brando is her priority.

“That is something Barry really values in a partner. That sense of ‘normalness’ he had with Alyson, who wasn’t bothered about living a public life, is what his friends think he has found again in Neeka.”

Barry’s new romance is a stark contrast to the one he had with American singer Sabrina, 27.

They became one of 2024’s biggest It couples, with loved-up appearances at Coachella and the Met Gala.

Barry was even rolled out as part of Sabrina’s album campaign for Short N’ Sweet, appearing in the music video for her single Please, Please, Please.

“Neeka is totally in sync with Barry,” a friend explains. “When their relationship got more serious, she deleted all of her social media profiles, even her LinkedIn.

“She gets that he wants to live a quiet life and she is totally down with that.”

Those close to Barry also say that he has never been happier.

A pal adds: “Career- wise, Barry is going from strength to strength.

“The Beatles biopics will be intense from next year, with promotion all over the globe and Barry knows his feet won’t touch the ground.

“With Neeka, he’s been able to spend time doing things he loves. Working hard, living a quiet life and hanging out with his mates.”

When Barry split from Sabrina after a year, a source cited their busy workloads. But then all hell broke loose.

Social media trolls and hardline Sabrina fans accused him of cheating.

The unfounded claims were fuelled further by a TikTok personality called Breckie Hill, who was linked to Barry on a gossip website. In a statement posted just days after his split was made public, Barry wrote: “I can only sit and take so much. I deactivated my account because I can no longer let this stuff distract from my family and my work.

“The messages I have received — no person should ever have to read them.

“Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine.”

Those close to Barry said it was comments about his late mother, who died of a heroin overdose when he was 12, that hurt the most.

The star, who spent his formative years in and out of the care system in Ireland, said of his background: “She was just unable to look after us.

“My father wasn’t there and so we got taken into care.

“That kind of thing still haunts me. You don’t forget waiting on the social worker’s steps and waiting for a new family to come and play with you. You ask: why you?”

In his heartfelt statement announcing he was leaving social media, Barry also described the messages sent to him.

He wrote: “Talking about how I was a heroin baby and how I grew up, and dragging my dear mother into it. Knocking on my granny’s door. Sitting outside my baby boy’s house intimidating them. That’s crossing a line.”

But just four months after he bid a public retreat, Barry was unveiled as one of the new Fab Four for Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics.

Insiders revealed that he threw himself into the work alongside Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn ahead of filming, which started production earlier this year.

He was rarely seen or gave ­interviews, and kept a low profile.

But last August, he hit the headlines again after Sabrina dropped her album Man’s Best Friend, which once again led to frenzied speculation that some of the songs were about him.

She even remade the video for Please, Please, Please, with the new version showing Barry’s character tied up in the boot of her car.

Sabrina refused to shut down allegations of cheating and said of her album: “I write songs about exactly how I feel, so I guess I can’t be surprised that people are interested in who and what those songs are about.”

In March this year, Barry told how he was still getting abuse online. He said: “There’s a lot of hate online. There’s a lot of abuse of how I look, and it’s kind of past the point of, ‘Everyone goes through that’.

“And everyone does, but it’s made me shy away.

“It’s made me really go inside myself, not want to attend places, not want to go outside.

“And I say this being absolute pure and honest to you. It’s becoming a problem.”

The following month he addressed the backlash around Sabrina, saying: “There was a narrative out there that was never really sort of even spoken on — a narrative that’s not true — and I never confirmed or said anything about it. And I just disappeared.

“I’m not asking for people to become my fans and like me because that’s not normal.

“I’m asking for people to stop assuming and also stop jumping on this narrative and attacking me and dragging me down in any way you can. I’m not saying this for pity. Why is it cool to hop on and beat someone up?”

Now, those close to Barry insist he will not be hard-launching his romance with Danica.

A friend added: “He has been through a high- profile romance, he’s not in a hurry to go back.

POP star Sabrina Carpenter pips it in the fashion stakes in a lemon yellow frock.

The Espresso singer, 27, donned a transparent Dior gown which showed off her white underwear.

And she clutched a ­yellow Dior handbag as the French fashion house showcased its new collection in Los Angeles.

Carpenter had also worn a Dior dress at the annual New York Met Gala, which paid homage to Audrey Hepburn’s 1954 film Sabrina.

She was joined at the Dior show by The Queen’s Gambit actress Anya Taylor-Joy, 30, who was in a black cut-out frock.

This comes off the back of Sabrina’s sensational headline concerts at Coachella last month.

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Sabrina Carpenter rocks tight-fitting frock with thigh-high slit at Met Gala

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The singer delivered a set dubbed “Sabrinawood” with a Hollywood-themed set across two weekends on April 10 and 17.

Her shows featured some very iconic cameos from the likes of Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, and Sam Elliott.

The setlist highlighted her most recent album Man’s Best Friend.

But it also included some of her biggest hits like Espresso and Feather.

SABRINA Carpenter rocked an old Hollywood look at the Met Gala on Monday, rocking a tight-fitting frock with a racy thigh-high slit.

The 26-year-old singing sensation wore a gorgeous dress made out of real old Hollywood film reels as she attended the star-studded event in New York.

The film reels on the dress were of the Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn movie, which is titled Sabrina.

She flashed her toned pins as she strutted her stuff in front of onlookers, smiling and beaming as she made her way up the iconic steps.

Fans were left completely enamoured by her sizzling ensemble.

“The hair is so pretty, the dress is stunning, everything is amazing,” penned one person.

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“This b**ch wrapped herself in Kodak film,” added a second, complete with a laughing emoji.

“That is a cool dress and idea,” said a third.

“She DEFINITELY understood the assignment,” added a fourth.

While a fifth wrote: “Sabrina Carpenter’s dress is one of the most creative I’ve seen tonight. I love that.”

But not everyone was complimentary of her outfit, with some quick to share their critique.

“It’s classy but she could have done a whole lot better,” said one person.

“Boring as usual,” slammed a second.

While a third penned: “the dress itself is beautifully constructed but the choice of the film strips is lost on me and its connection to the theme/dress code?”

This comes off the back of Sabrina’s sensational headline concerts at Coachella last month.

The singer delivered a set dubbed “Sabrinawood” with a Hollywood-themed set across two weekends on April 10 and 17.

Her shows featured some very iconic cameos from the likes of Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, and Sam Elliott.

The setlist highlighted her most recent album Man’s Best Friend, but also included some of her biggest hits like Espresso and Feather.

WITH a rocketing career and A-list girlfriend Sabrina Carpenter on his arm, Barry Keoghan had the world at his feet in 2024.

But after his relationship soured — amid false claims the actor cheated — he was so badly burned by the fallout that he has become a recluse.

Barry has quit all social media, stopped seeing his mates and has even moved house — all while internet trolls continue to hurl insults his way.

The strife all stems from a rumour that he had an affair while seeing Espresso singer Sabrina, 26, which she herself has said was false.

Saltburn actor Barry, 33, who is currently filming the upcoming Beatles biopics as Ringo Starr, said: “I have been avoiding stuff.

“I’ve stopped socialising. And again, it’s because there was a narrative that’s not true.

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BARRY’S TRUTH

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“I never confirmed or said anything about it, and, you know, I just disappeared.”

Pushed on what that narrative is, he continued: “It’s that I cheated.

“I don’t want to ever bring anyone else into it, but unfortunately having a relationship in the public eye, we all know this, it gets put out there, and it’s amplified.

“A girl made a video and then the girl actually made [another] video and went, ‘Sorry for making that up’, but no one seemed to latch on to that video.”

Gossip site DeuxMoi and social media influencers had claimed he was seen at a members’ club and steakhouse with another blonde woman while he was dating Sabrina.

Fans believed he had cheated with influencer Breckie Hill, although she insisted it was untrue and that they had never even met.

Barry now says that despite deleting his accounts, he is still drawn to the vicious things people write about him online, almost 18 months after his year-long romance with the chart-topper ended.

He explained: “I’m not on Instagram or Twitter or any of that but I still go on and have a little . . . I go on my brother’s account. I can access it that way.

“I do go on and have a look because I’m curious, but there’s a lot of hatred towards me for just looking like this. It’s just crazy.

“There’s videos on TikTok that literally go, ‘I hate him’.

“I went through addiction myself and then sobriety, and to battle all of that, to then want to drag that person down . . . ”

Sabrina did little to suppress the online noise against him when she released her No1 album Man’s Best Friend last August — on which she sang about dating a “manchild”.

And Barry says he struggled in the aftermath, as he did not want her to have to deny the cheating rumours following their split.

He explained: “It’s a hard one because I never want to speak on behalf of other people. And I also never want to mention other people or involve them.

“And even if it is those people that were in a relationship, it’s not their place to come forward and speak on my behalf.

“It’s unfair to them. They’re also in a relationship. It’s both of us being out there, so I’m very aware of that.”

Barry, who hails from Dublin, said he has even relocated from London to the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames due to the mental toll events have taken on him.

But it is fair to say he has faced plenty of other challenges in his life, having largely grown up in foster homes.

His mum died when he was 12 after years spent battling a drug addiction.

Now, speaking on the Friends Keep Secrets podcast, Barry has talked about how he fell into a similar spiral of addiction and has only managed to overcome his substance dependence in recent years.

Barry said: “I’m clean now. But my mum died at 32 from heroin and my dad passed away. But the curiosity of still wanting to do this, for me, was absolutely . . . 

“It took me three attempts at rehab and it was finally Malibu, The Pointe, where there was a sudden switch and it was when I was 32, the same age my mum was. Like, ‘That’s it, I’m not doing it’.”

Asked if he ever drinks now, he added: “I don’t do anything.

“I used to try to justify it by going, ‘Maybe I’ll be off the drink for a while’, but now I like to think I’m allergic to alcohol because my reaction is: Cocaine. That reaction can make me die.”

And he claims he actually has died — and was brought back to life — in 2021 due to being high on drugs.

He was hit by a bottle in a pub and developed the rare bacterial infection necrotising fasciitis.

Barry explained: “This is a flesh-eating bacteria infection that I got and almost died.

“I got it right before I filmed the movie Banshees Of Inisherin and literally, I got it three weeks beforehand. I got it because I went through psychosis.

“An event happened and I got hit with a bottle, and something happened to my arm. It went to my blood system and whatever. But it’s a very rare infection.

“This basically eats your limbs and they have to remove it.

“I technically did die for a few seconds.”

He went on to deliver an outstanding performance in The Banshees Of Inisherin, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars.

But the infection was so touch-and-go that he even believes he had a “post-death vision”.

He said: “I did. I swear to you, it was almost like a f***ing painting. It happened in London. I went for a few seconds and there was this sort of image. There was this girl walking away and she wouldn’t look back.

“She had blonde hair, but she was walking away and I kept calling her.

“She just kept walking and I wanted to see who it was.

“It was almost like she was walking away to get me to follow.

“On this side was council flats, it was black and white, and this side was in colour.

“On this side, there was loads of lads stabbing me and trying to push me over and, obviously, it was the doctors doing the work on me, you know, that’s what I was feeling.

“But in this vision, they were stabbing me and pushing me, and I was holding on to them, and they were trying to push me over to this side.

“I swear, I was begging them that I could stay. I said, ‘Please let me stay’.”

In 2022 he was arrested in Dublin for public intoxication. Months later he became a dad to a little boy with partner Alyson Kierans, a dental nurse. But they split in mid-2023.

Later that year, he got together with Sabrina, and gained mainstream success in the dark comedy Saltburn.

That led to an outpouring of love and support, which no doubt helped him land his next role — and the most important one of his career so far.

He is playing Beatles drummer Ringo in the four-film cinematic biopic being created by director Sam Mendes.

Asked about how he is finding work on the project, which is halfway through a year-long filming schedule, he said: “I’m loving it.”

He will appear alongside Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

However, Barry revealed the tight work schedule is having a major affect on his body — and he has lost a stone since the cameras started rolling.

He said: “I’ve lost so much weight on this movie. I was 65 or 66 kilos and I’m like 58 kilos now. But it’s because of my ADHD meds as well.

“No one tells you to lose weight and I don’t need to lose it for Ringo either. But it’s more of getting into character and the stamina.

“Movies usually last six or seven weeks and I always lose weight by the end, but by that time I’m gone. But this one’s a year.”

He is expected to spend the majority of this year finishing the movies, before they hit screens in April 2028.

And hopefully by that time, at least, he will feel able to leave the house with his head held high.

POP icon Madonna stunned festival-goers with a racy return to the Coachella stage as a surprise guest alongside Sabrina Carpenter.

The 67-year-old music legend teamed up with Espresso singer Sabrina for a show-stopping finale – dressed-to-impress in purple lingerie.

Two decades after her own epic headlining slot at the Californian festival, the queen of pop turned heads in a flesh-flashing frilly outfit.

Wearing a purple corset with matching lilac gloves, purple stockings and knee-high stiletto boots, the comeback queen accessorised with tinted shades and her long blonde hair down in waves.

She joined a lingerie-clad Sabrina, 26, who wowed in a white lace sparkly bodice and heels during her headline set at Coachella.

The duo delighted the crowds with classic hits including Vogue, Like A Prayer and I Feel So Free from Madonna’s new album.

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Sabrina had been mid-performance when an instrumental tease of Madonna‘s 1990 hit song Vogue weaved in.

Madonna told the cheering audience: “Wow, thank you.

“Sabrina, thank you so much for inviting me on your show.”

Holding hands, she replied: “No thanks needed, Madonna.”

“Well, I have a few things I want to get off my chest. So, 20 years ago today I performed at Coachella,” admitted the Ray of Light singer.

“I was in the dance tent and it was the first time I performed Confessions On The Dance Floor part one in America.

“It’s a full circle moment, you know? Very meaningful for me.” 

She urged: “Let’s try to be together. Let’s try to avoid disagreements.

“And to that point, the great thing about music is that it brings people together. 

“It’s the one place that people have to put their differences aside, put their s**t down and just everybody have a good time together, right?

“So I am thrilled to be a part of that healing experience…”

The Vogue singer confirmed this week that she will release her first record in seven years this July — a sequel to her 2005 smash Confessions On A Dance Floor.

The original, inspired by disco and Eighties electropop, shifted more than 10million copies.

It featured No1 singles Hung Up and Sorry, and ushered in a new era of dance music.

In 2024, Sabrina paid ­tribute to Madge by attending the MTV VMAs in a vintage strapless gown previously worn to the Oscars by her musical hero in 1991.

Sabrina said of Madonna last year: “She’s so lovely and exactly how you expect her to be — just, like, so magnetic.”

The Please Please Please singer has thrilled fans sharing a photo dump containing some sizzling snaps of her festival stint – including a mini dress, knee-high boots and beret combo.

Anyone who thinks Coachella’s biggest surprises are reserved for Weekend 1 was proven wrong Friday night as Sabrina Carpenter welcomed Madonna on stage during her Weekend 2 headlining set. The crowd exploded with waves of cheers as the iconic pop star came on stage.

Madge joined Carpenter as a surprise guest during “Juno,” in which Carpenter reemerged in a gown that was a nod to Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” for a torch-passing duet of Madonna’s 1990 pop-house gauntlet “Vogue.”

The classic was followed by the debut of the gloriously upbeat “I Feel Free,” the first track from the pop icon’s forthcoming new album “Confessions II,” due out July 3.

The singer announced the record, a sequel to 2005’s “Confessions On A Dancefloor,” on April 15, alongside a 60-second teaser video for “I Feel Free.”

The Coachella performance, however, marks the first time the song has been heard in full — a fitting full circle moment 20 after Madonna played the Sahara Tent in 2006, complete with the same boots and costuming from that gig. “Confessions II” will be Madonna’s first full-length album since 2019’s “Madame X.”

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“Let’s try to be together. Let’s try to avoid disagreements,” Madonna said as she spoke about the moon and planets aligning.

Before the pair ended with “Like a Prayer,” accompanied by a choir, Madonna had another reason to be grateful.

“This is probably the first time I’ve ever performed with someone shorter than me,” Madonna said to Carpenter as the crowd laughed. “Thank you for giving me that experience.”

Senior Audience Editor Vanessa Franko contributed to this report.