Dua Lipa (Dula Peep) covers the latest issue of British Vogue. I enjoy Dua, and she’s one of those people who seems very cool while also staying really scandal-free. Like, the biggest controversy with her in the past decade was “Dua is not a great dancer.” She heard about it and actually worked hard to improve her dancing, and that was that. Her fanbase seems sane and cheerful, she has a popular book club, she releases popular music regularly, and she stands up for marginalized people. What’s not to like? Well, there’s a lot of energy around Dua’s relationship these days – she’s been with Callum Turner for a few years, and she announced in her British Vogue cover story that they are engaged. Worst-kept secret – her fans figured this out months ago, but it’s nice to have the confirmation. Some highlights from Vogue:

Turning 30 this summer: “I turn 30 in August and I’ve been thinking about it a lot, because your 20s are just so tumultuous in the way you think about yourself and your body. And I don’t know, now I feel like I’ve come to a place – I’ve become better at taking care of myself and working out and dancing. I feel the most confident I’ve ever felt. I feel very empowered and strong in my body. I feel good when I’m sharing my energy with people on stage. There’s just so much of that that makes me really proud of my body and the way it holds me.”

Her business: In the last three years Lipa has broadened her empire: after her father took over her management in 2022 she bought back the rights to her songs and signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music – just one of many plates her media company, Radical22, is spinning, along with a film production arm, her global editorial platform Service95 and an influential book club. She has become known not just as singer but as a savvy businesswoman, an outspoken champion of social justice and an omnivorous cultural guide.

Meeting Callum Turner: Dua first met Callum at The River Cafe in London – she was having dinner with her dad, he was out with friends. They were introduced by the restaurant’s cofounder, Ruth Rogers, but they’d almost met many times before. “There’s a lot of Sliding Doors moments,” Dua explains. In 2014, she was working at La Bodega Negra; there’s a photo of him outside the same Soho spot that exact same year. In 2020, they went to the same last pre-lockdown party – they later found they had photos with the same guy in the background, one hour apart. “We have so many friends in common,” she says.

Then they ran into each other in LA: A year after their brief encounter at the restaurant, Dua was in LA having dinner with her friend Mustafa the Poet, “and all of a sudden Callum shows up”. She thought: “Oh, it’s that really hot guy from The River Cafe.” He asked her what she was reading. She said Hernan Diaz’s novel Trust. “And we both just happened to be reading the same book.” Does all of that make you feel you were destined to be together? “One thousand per cent.”

She started wearing a diamond ring late last year: “Yeah, we’re engaged,” she says over dinner. “It’s very exciting.” She tells me Callum had the ring made for her after consulting her best friends and her sister. “I’m obsessed with it. It’s so me. It’s nice to know the person that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with knows you very well.” As for the wedding: no plans yet. “I want to finish my tour, Callum’s shooting, so we’re just enjoying this period. I’ve never been someone who’s really thought about a wedding, or dreamt about what kind of bride I would be. All of a sudden I’m like: ‘Oh, what would I wear?’” She says she’s seen many people get engaged “and never really understood the weight of it”. Now she realises: “This decision to grow old together, to see a life and just, I don’t know, be best friends forever – it’s a really special feeling.”

Whether she wants kids: “I’d love to have kids one day. But it’s like the constant question of when would there ever be a good time – how it would fit in with my job and how it would work if I went on tour, and how much time out I’d have to take. I think it’s just one of those things that’s going to happen when it happens. I love kids, but I think there’s so much more to raising a child than just loving children.”

[From British Vogue]

I get good vibes from Callum and Dua together, like they’re really well-suited and they’ll probably make it long-term. Similar vibes to Keira Knightley and James Righton – slightly eccentric in similar ways, with the woman being much more famous and the man accepting it and being her biggest cheerleader. I loved what Dua said about kids too, and how important it is for her to work right now. I wish more women would talk about that stuff!

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, cover courtesy of British Vogue.